Mark D. Schwartz
Department of Geography, UW-Milwaukee, mds@uwm.edu
An exciting new development in phenological science is the use of fixed cameras to provide continuous near-surface remote sensing observations of seasonal development and senescence within small patches of vegetation. The PhenoCam Network is a global project (P.I. Andrew Richardson, Harvard University, sites primarily in North America) that is designed to coordinate this type of data collection. The PhenoCam website is: http://phenocam.sr.unh.edu/webcam/ UW-Milwaukee added two nodes to the PhenoCam network with cameras installed in March 2013 on the Sandburg East Tower (viewing north toward Downer Woods, see http://phenocam.sr.unh.edu/webcam/sites/downerwoods/) and at the UW-Milwaukee Field Station (viewing a small grove of trees north of the main buildings, http://phenocam.sr.unh.edu/webcam/sites/uwmfieldsta/). The cameras record an image once every half-hour during daylight hours in both the visible and near-infrared. These data will be added to the traditional ground-based visual phenology observations and climate data collected at both sites to continue efforts to better understand phenological changes, as well as bridge the spatial and methodological gaps between visual phenology and remote sensing-derived measurements.