This dataset is a collection of drone lidar data from plots across Australia (AusPlots, SuperSites, Cal/Val sites to be established in the future). The aim of these drone surveys is to capture vegetation structure. The standardised data collection and data processing protocols developed in 2022 are based on the DJI Matrice 300 (M300) RTK drone platform. Lidar sensor DJI Zenmuse L1 is used with DJI Matrice 300 (M300) RTK platform to capture RGB colourised 3D point clouds. The data is georeferenced using the onboard GNSS in M300 and the D-RTK 2 base station. DJI Terra software was used to generate 3D point clouds from the raw lidar data. The protocols include flight planning and data collection guidelines for a 100 x 100 m TERN plot, and the processing workflow used on DJI Terra. Mission-specific metadata for each plot is provided in the imagery/metadata folder (please refer to the imagery collection). The Drone Data Collection and Lidar Processing protocols can be found at <em> https://www.tern.org.au/field-survey-apps-and-protocols/ </em>.

The Australian Phenology Product is a continental data set that allows the quantitative analysis of Australia’s phenology derived from MODIS Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) data using an algorithm designed to accommodate Australian conditions, described in Xie et al. 2023. The product can be used to characterize phenological cycles of greening and browning and quantify the cycles’ inter and intra annual variability from 2003 to 2018 across Australia. Phenological cycles are defined as a period of EVI-measured greening and browning that may occur at any time of the year, extend across the end of a year, skip a year (not occur for one or multiple years) or occur more than once a year. Multiple phenological cycles within a year can occur in the form of double cropping in agricultural areas or be caused by a-seasonal rain events in water limited environments. Based on per-pixel greenness trajectories measured by MODIS EVI, phenological cycle curves were modelled and their key properties in the form of phenological curve metrics were derived including: the first and second minimum point, peak, start and end of cycle; length of cycle, and; the amplitude of the cycle. Integrated EVI under the curve between the start and end of the cycle time of each cycle is calculated as a proxy of productivity.

This dataset is a collection of drone RGB and multispectral imagery from plots across Australia (AusPlots, SuperSites, Cal/Val sites to be established in the future). Standardised data collection and data processing protocols are used to collect drone imagery and to generate orthomosaics. The protocols developed in 2022 are based on the DJI Matrice 300 (M300) RTK drone platform. DJI Zenmuse P1 and MicaSense RedEdge-MX/Dual sensors are used with M300 to capture RGB and multispectral imagery simultaneously. The data is georeferenced using the DJI D-RTK2 base station and onboard GNSS RTK. In the processing workflow, the multispectral image positions (captured with navigation-grade accuracy) are interpolated using image timestamp and RGB image coordinates. Dense point clouds and the fine-resolution RGB smoothed surface were used to generate co-registered RGB (1 cm/pixel) and multispectral (5 cm/pixel) orthomosaics. Mission-specific metadata for each plot is provided in the imagery/metadata folder. The Drone Data Collection and RGB and Multispectral Imagery Processing protocols can be found at <em> https://www.tern.org.au/field-survey-apps-and-protocols/ </em>.