Site metadata are provided in two formats. The first is a simple text file with colon separated key-value pairs. The file is named using the convention <sitename>_meta.txt. An example text format metadata files is shown below:
last_updated: 2017-09-09
project: PhenoCam Network
project_url: https://phenocam.sr.unh.edu/
fairuse_statement:
PhenoCam Fair Use Data Policy: Since its inception, the objective
of the PhenoCam network has been to serve as a repository for
phenologically-relevant, digital, repeat (time-lapse) imagery, and
to make that imagery, and derived data products, freely available
to a wide array of third-party data end-users, including
researchers, educators, and the general public. Thus, imagery from
the PhenoCam archive is made publicly available, without
restriction, for non-commercial scientific and educational
purposes, and we encourage you to download imagery and datasets
for use in your own research and teaching. We request that all
publications using the dataset (1) properly cite the PhenoCam
dataset, the associated data descriptor, and other relevant
publications; and (2) include both a general acknowledgement for
the PhenoCam project and the appropriate site-specific
acknowledgements for every site used in your analysis. The text
for these acknowledgments is included in the metadata file
associated with each PhenoCam site. Distribution and Re-use
Policy: The PhenoCam Dataset version 1.0 is distributed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0
International License. Acknowledgments: The development of
PhenoCam has been supported by the Northeastern States Research
Cooperative, NSF’s Macrosystems Biology program (award
EF-1065029), DOE’s Regional and Global Climate Modeling program
(award DE-SC0016011), and the US National Park Service Inventory
and Monitoring Program and the USA National Phenology Network
(grant number G10AP00129 from the United States Geological
Survey). PhenoCam collaborators, including site PIs and
technicians, are thanked for their efforts in support of PhenoCam.
project_fairuse_url: https://phenocam.sr.unh.edu/webcam/fairuse_statement/
phenocam_site:
sitename: coweeta
long_name: Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory, USDA Forest Service, Southern Research Station, Otto, North Carolina
lat: 35.05959
lon: -83.42798
elevation: 680
contact1: Chris Oishi
contact2: Dave Hollinger
active: True
date_start: 2011-04-08
date_end: 2017-09-08
nimage: 52086
site_type: II
infrared_enabled: Y
method: ftppush
utc_offset: -5
camera_description: Startdot NetCam XL
camera_orientation: NE
group: PhenoCam
flux_data: True
flux_networks: OTHER
flux_sitenames:
ecoregion: 8
MAP_site: 1800.0
MAP_daymet: 1760.0
MAP_worldclim: 1722.0
MAT_site: 12.9
MAT_daymet: 12.95
MAT_worldclim: 12.5
primary_veg_type: DB
secondary_veg_type: None
dominant_species: Quercus prinus, Acer rubrum, Quercus coccinea, Rhododendron maximum, Quercus rubra, Liriodendron tulipifera
landcover_igbp: 5
wwf_biome: 4
koeppen_geiger: Cfb
site_acknowledgements:
Research at the Coweeta flux tower is funded through the USDA
Forest Service, Southern Research Station; USDA Agriculture
and Food Research Initiative Foundational Program, award
number 2012-67019-19484; EPA agreement number
13-IA-11330140-044; and the National Science Foundation, Long-
Term Ecological Research (LTER) program, award #DEB-0823293.
The same information is also provided in JSON format which is suitable for programatic access to the metadata fields. Here is a sample of the JSON format file:
{
"last_updated": "2017-09-09",
"project": "PhenoCam Network",
"project_url": "https://phenocam.sr.unh.edu/",
"fairuse_statement": "PhenoCam Fair Use Data Policy: Since its inception, the objective of the PhenoCam network has been to serve as a repository for phenologically-relevant, digital, repeat (time-lapse) imagery, and to make that imagery, and derived data products, freely available to a wide array of third-party data end-users, including researchers, educators, and the general public. Thus, imagery from the PhenoCam archive is made publicly available, without restriction, for non-commercial scientific and educational purposes, and we encourage you to download imagery and datasets for use in your own research and teaching. We request that all publications using the dataset (1) properly cite the PhenoCam dataset, the associated data descriptor, and other relevant publications; and (2) include both a general acknowledgement for the PhenoCam project and the appropriate site-specific acknowledgements for every site used in your analysis. The text for these acknowledgments is included in the metadata file associated with each PhenoCam site. Distribution and Re-use Policy: The PhenoCam Dataset version 1.0 is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Acknowledgments: The development of PhenoCam has been supported by the Northeastern States Research Cooperative, NSF\u2019s Macrosystems Biology program (award EF-1065029), DOE\u2019s Regional and Global Climate Modeling program (award DE-SC0016011), and the US National Park Service Inventory and Monitoring Program and the USA National Phenology Network (grant number G10AP00129 from the United States Geological Survey). PhenoCam collaborators, including site PIs and technicians, are thanked for their efforts in support of PhenoCam. ",
"project_fairuse_url": "https://phenocam.sr.unh.edu/webcam/fairuse_statement/",
"phenocam_site": {
"sitename": "coweeta",
"long_name": "Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory, USDA Forest Service, Southern Research Station, Otto, North Carolina",
"lat": 35.05959,
"lon": -83.42798,
"elevation": 680,
"contact1": "Chris Oishi ",
"contact2": "Dave Hollinger ",
"active": true,
"date_start": "2011-04-08",
"date_end": "2017-09-08",
"nimage": 52086,
"site_type": "II",
"infrared_enabled": "Y",
"method": "ftppush",
"utc_offset": -5,
"camera_description": "Startdot NetCam XL",
"camera_orientation": "NE",
"group": "PhenoCam",
"flux_data": true,
"flux_networks": "OTHER",
"flux_sitenames": "",
"ecoregion": 8,
"MAP_site": 1800.0,
"MAP_daymet": 1760.0,
"MAP_worldclim": 1722.0,
"MAT_site": 12.9,
"MAT_daymet": 12.95,
"MAT_worldclim": 12.5,
"primary_veg_type": "DB",
"secondary_veg_type": null,
"dominant_species": "Quercus prinus, Acer rubrum, Quercus coccinea, Rhododendron maximum, Quercus rubra, Liriodendron tulipifera",
"landcover_igbp": 5,
"wwf_biome": 4,
"koeppen_geiger": "Cfb",
"site_acknowledgements": "Research at the Coweeta flux tower is funded through the USDA Forest Service, Southern Research Station; USDA Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Foundational Program, award number 2012-67019-19484; EPA agreement number 13-IA-11330140-044; and the National Science Foundation, Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) program, award #DEB-0823293."
}
}
Most of the site metadata is provided by the site's local contacts. If you have questions about the metadata for a site we encourage you to contact them, as they are the best source of information about the data from their site.
Some of the metadata values provided have been derived by using gridded datasets and the site location information. These data are provided merely as a convenience and to provide approximate (and consistently-sourced) information on landcover, ecoregion, meteorology, and climate. These data will depend on the accuracy of the site location and the grid size of the source data sets used. Notes on the sources of these data are given below.
The ecoregion metadata value refers to the EPA North America Level I Ecoregion.
References:
The key for the ecoregion is as follows:
0: Water
1: Arctic Cordillera
2: Tundra
3: Taiga
4: Hudson Plain
5: Northern Forests
6: Northwestern Forested Mountains
7: Marine West Coast Forest
8: Eastern Temperate Forests
9: Great Plains
10: North American Deserts
11: Mediterranean California
12: Southern Semi-Arid Highlands
13: Temperate Sierras
14: Tropical Dry Forests
15: Tropical Wet Forest
The koeppen-geiger metadata value refers to the Köppen-Geiger present-day climate classification.
References:
The key to the climate classifications is as follows:
Af - Tropical-Rainforest
Am - Tropical-Monsoon
As - Tropical-Dry Summer
Aw - Tropical-Savanna
BWk - Cold Desert
BWh - Hot Desert
BSk - Cold Steppe
BSh - Hot Steppe
Cfa - Subtropical-Without Dry Season--Hot Summer
Cfb - Oceanic-Without Dry Season--Warm Summer
Cfc - Oceanic-Without Dry Season--Cold Summer
Csa - Mediterranean-Dry Summer--Hot Summer
Csb - Mediterranean-Dry Summer--Warm Summer
Csc - Mediterranean-Dry Summer--Cold Summer
Cwa - Subtropical-Dry Winter--Hot Summer
Cwb - Oceanic-Dry Winter--Warm Summer
Cwc - Oceanic-Dry Winter--Cold Summer
Dfa - Continental-Without Dry Season--Hot Summer
Dfb - Continental-Without Dry Season--Warm Summer
Dfc - Continental-Without Dry Season--Cold Summer
Dfd - Continental-Without Dry Season--Very Cold Winter
Dsa - Continental-Dry Summer--Hot Summer
Dsb - Continental-Dry Summer--Warm Summer
Dsc - Continental-Dry Summer--Cold Summer
Dsd - Continental-Dry Summer--Very Cold Winter
Dwa - Continental-Dry Winter--Hot Summer
Dwb - Continental-Dry Winter--Warm Summer
Dwc - Continental-Dry Winter--Cold Summer
Dwd - Continental-Dry Winter--Very Cold Winter
EF - Ice Cap
ET - Tundra
The MAT_daymet and MAP_daymet metadata values are the mean annual temperature (MAT) and mean annual precipitation (MAP) values calculated from DAYMET data provided by the ORNL DAAC. The DAYMET dataset is limited to North America, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico. The means were calculated using the 1980-2010 data.
References:
Because the DAYMET data are not global we also provide MAT_worldclim and MAP_worldclim values based on WorldClim dataset.
References:
The landcover_igbp value is derived using the gridded MODIS landcover data from the Global Land Cover Facility at University of Maryland.
References:
Here are the standard IGBP landcover classes:
0 - Water
1 - Evergreen Needleleaf forest
2 - Evergreen Broadleaf forest
3 - Deciduous Needleleaf forest
4 - Deciduous Broadleaf forest
5 - Mixed forest
6 - Closed shrublands
7 - Open shrublands
8 - Woody savannas
9 - Savannas
10 - Grasslands
11 - Permanent wetlands
12 - Croplands
13 - Urban and built-up
14 - Cropland/Natural vegetation mosaic
15 - Snow and ice
16 - Barren or sparsely vegetated
254 - Unclassified
255 - Fill Value
The wwf_biome metadata value is derived using the site location and a shapefile of the Terrestrial Ecosystems of the World provided by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
References:
The values for wwf_biome are show below:
1 - Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests
2 - Tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests
3 - Tropical and subtropical coniferous forests
4 - Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests
5 - Temperate coniferous forests
6 - Boreal forests/taiga
7 - Tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands
8 - Temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands
9 - Flooded grasslands and savannas
10 - Montane grasslands and shrublands
11- Tundra
12 - Mediterranean forests, woodlands and scrub or sclerophyll forests
13 - Deserts and xeric shrublands
14 - Mangrove
98 - Fresh water lake
99 - Rock/Ice