Construction of nation's first coast-to-coast climate network begins

LOGAN — Imagine being able to put your fingers on the pulse of America's biosphere — keeping real-time track of weather, water/soil temperature, animal populations and much more.

Armed with this information, scientists would be able to detect sudden shifts in climate, perhaps even predict them, allowing the nation to prepare for potential disasters.

The National Science Foundation has given the financial go-ahead to begin construction of the nation's first coast-to-coast network of observatories, including one in Utah, to measure real-time climate changes.

The National Ecological Observatory Network, or NEON, is designed to gather vast amounts of data, every second, from around the country using satellites, observation towers, aircraft sensors, mobile motorized sensors and field work by scientists. From insect samples to weather data, the information will be fed into a central lab to build a picture of the nation's ecological health.

What scientists will keep an eye out for are "threshold events," or sudden changes in climates, that can lead to droughts, floods, even the spread of diseases, said James MacMahon, dean of Utah State University's College of Science and chairman of NEON's board of directors.

By gathering environmental data on a continental scale, MacMahon said scientists will be able to keep track of a large number of events, including the spread of invasive species into new areas, or of new diseases through insects and other animals, which could then be spread to humans in new locations.

"Nothing like this has been attempted on this scale before," MacMahon said. Getting advanced warning of sudden drought or the outbreak of disease could help communities take preventative steps. "The results of a threshold event could be catastrophic."

An example of a threshold event is the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, in which severe droughts, coupled with poor farming techniques, led to huge dust storms and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of American families.

Construction of the network is set to begin this year, with the first of 64 total installations in Colorado and Massachusetts. The anticipated cost of the entire network is $434 million, according to the National Science Foundation. Eventually a sensor station will be built in Utah about 62 miles southwest of Salt Lake City.

"The biosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere are all linked," said Joann Roskoski, acting assistant director for biological sciences at NSF. "(NEON) will be the first experimental facility to collect consistent and standardized biological measurements nationwide in real time."

In addition to the hardware network, several hundred universities will be involved in gathering data, with 50 institutions acting as official NEON members.

MacMahon said they hope to have the entire NEON network up and running within five years, depending on funding fluctuations by Congress.

E-mail: gfattah@desnews.com