NACP MCI: Cropland Productivity and Biophysical Properties, Nebraska, USA, 2001-2008

This data set provides an integrated collection of (1) ground-based meteorological, radiometric, and vegetation measurements, (2) flux-based estimates of gross primary production (GPP), and (3) numerous vegetation indices derived from satellite imagery for three eddy covariance flux tower locations near Lincoln, Nebraska, USA. Land use surrounding the towers is cropland with corn and soybeans. Data are reported for selected days during the growing seasons of 2001 through 2008 only when ground-based crop canopy reflectance was measured. Algorithms developed to relate ground-based and satellite spectral information to GPP of the cropland adjacent to the towers are provided. AmeriFlux tower-based Level 2 measurements included photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), heat flux, and GPP estimates; see Section 2 for specific towers. Ground-based measurements on the corn and soybean vegetation surrounding the towers included total chlorophyll content (Chl) and leaf area index (LAI). Ground-based crop canopy reflectance was measured at 5.4 m above the corn and soybean canopy using hyperspectral radiometers (range 400 to 1100 nm) during the growing season from May to October in eight different years (2001-2008). This resulted in 173 measurement campaigns (18 in 2001, 31 in 2002, 34 in 2003, 31 in 2004, 21 in 2005, 15 in 2006, 14 in 2007, and 9 in 2008). Spectral bands from Landsat TM and ETM+, MERIS , and MODIS instruments were used to calculate vegetation indices. Vegetation indices related to chlorophyll can be used as a proxy for GPP because of the observed close relationship between GPP and Chl content in crops. Algorithms developed to relate spectral information to the GPP of the cropland adjacent to the towers are provided as companion files.

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field Value
Maintainer Earthdata Forum
Last Updated May 11, 2026, 21:07 (UTC)
Created April 1, 2025, 17:54 (UTC)
accessLevel public
bureauCode {026:00}
catalog_conformsTo https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
harvest_object_id 78781405-a77f-484b-9c66-1e22ac463357
harvest_source_id b99e41c6-fe79-4c19-bbc3-9b6c8111bfac
harvest_source_title Science Discovery Engine
identifier 10.3334/ORNLDAAC/1217
license https://www.usa.gov/government-works
modified 2026-05-04T22:16:00Z
programCode {026:000}
publisher ORNL_DAAC
resource-type Dataset
source_datajson_identifier true
source_hash f6932da1aa137a68c21541fa904e39019eb8b2f6464d745e3bed2f35515a6d1c
source_schema_version 1.1
spatial [[{"WestBoundingCoordinate":-96.4766,"NorthBoundingCoordinate":41.1797,"EastBoundingCoordinate":-96.4397,"SouthBoundingCoordinate":41.1797}],"CARTESIAN"]
temporal 2001-06-12/2008-08-15
theme {"Earth Science"}