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National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NASA's Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment

ABoVE

ABoVE Planned Measurements - Who? What? When? Where?

ABoVE investigators conducting fieldwork should create data collection events using the ABoVE Sites and Measurements Tool. Project Leads (or their designated profile editors) should review and update planned measurement events using the "Sites and Measurements" tab in the ABoVE Project Profile Update Tool. Prior to conducting fieldwork you may not know the precise locations, so approximate coordinates are sufficient for planning purposes. Actual coordinates should be updated following your field work. Contact Support for help or to designate someone from your project as an editor.

Quick video tutorial with instructions for entering data into the Sites and Measurement Tool.

What to Prepare in Advance:

  1. NAME EVENT: Consider each event to consist of a set of measurements, taken in the same time frame(s), at a location or set of locations. The nomenclature you use will be dependent upon the most logical organization for your project. ie: 'Toolik Lake - Summer 2017'; 'Haul Road Soil Moisture'
     
  2. WHAT | Select Measurements: The measurements you plan to make at each location or set of locations. Review the defined vocabulary of measurements here >>. This is the list you will choose from in the "Sites and Measurements" tool. If you are making measurements not yet on the list, let Support know so we can update the defined measurements list. NOTE: measurements are listed by Science Theme based on the original projects from which they were drawn. Project Leads should take care to look through ALL of the themes, not just those nominally associated with your project's primary science theme. Some measurements (soil vegetation etc) are relevant to multiple science themes.
     
  3. WHEN | Select Dates: What months of the year you nominally plan to be at different locations; and in the case of automated instrumentation, during what months data will be collected.
     
  4. WHERE | Upload a KML File: Prepare one KML file of the set of locations defined for each event. Contact Support if you need assistance with generating your KML file.
    • Example 1: if you are going to the Noatak River in June to collect measurements, your Noatak sites would be in one KML file. If you then plan to go to the Seward Peninsula in August to collect more data (either the same or a different set of measurements), the Seward Peninsula sites would be a second KML file, because the timing of your field visit is different between the two locations.
    • Example 2: if you are setting up instruments to make automated measurements during a multimonth or multiyear time frame, at a number of locations across a broad geographic domain, you can create a single KML file for the entire activity. In this case, the 'where' and the 'when' and the 'what' are the same.
  5. Repeat steps above for each planned measurements event.

How to enter Measurement Events in the "Sites and Measurements" Tool?

  1. Sign in to your ABoVE Website Account (for Project Leads & profile editors) >>
  2. Select the "Update your ABoVE Project Profile(s)" from your 'My Account' page.
  3. Follow instructions on the "ABoVE Project Profile Tool" to select your project, and tab to the "Sites and Measurements" section.
  4. You will be presented with "Create | Edit | View" options for managing your planned measurement "events".
  5. View will list events created. Click each event to see measurements, dates, and sites. Sites are pulled from the associated KML file.
  6. Create will allow you to enter 1) Event Name 2) What measurements 3) When (select dates) 4) Where (upload KML) and 5) SAVE!!!
  7. Edit will allow you to update 1) Event Name 2) What measurements 3) When (select dates) 4) Where (upload KML) and 5) SAVE!!!

Search planned measurements using the "Planning Tool"

  • This tool is available to anyone who wants to see, on a map, where, what, when and who is collecting field measurements starting in 2016 and can also be used in planning for future data collection and coordinating with other teams. Measurement Events you add using the "Sites and Measurements" Tool are included in the the Planning Tool. The tool allows you to search by: Measurement theme, Measurement, ABoVE Project, and Field location. As an example, you can search on one or more measurement types and it will display all locations where the measurement is planned to be collected and give you the project name and the time that it will be collected. Options for sub-setting results and exporting to KML are also available.