PhenoCam Command Line Tool

PhenoFetch

A command-line tool for downloading and analyzing PhenoCam data from NEON (National Ecological Observatory Network) sites. PhenoFetch simplifies the process of retrieving and analyzing time-lapse images used to monitor vegetation phenology (seasonal changes) across various ecological sites in the United States.

What is PhenoFetch?

PhenoFetch is a Python-based tool designed to facilitate the retrieval and analysis of PhenoCam data from the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON). It provides both batch download capabilities and summary statistics for data availability, making it easier for researchers, students, and data scientists to work with phenological data.

!!! note
This tool is not officially affiliated with the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) or the PhenoCam Network.

Key Features

• Site Discovery: List all available NEON PhenoCam sites with their details
• Data Download: Efficiently download PhenoCam images and metadata for specified sites and date ranges
• Site Statistics: View comprehensive statistics about data availability for each site
• Size Estimation: Estimate the total download size before starting a large download
• Asynchronous Processing: Fast, concurrent downloading using asynchronous I/O
• Smart Concurrency: Automatically adjusts download parallelism based on system resources
• Progress Tracking: Clear progress bars and status updates during operations

Changelog

This page documents the version history and notable changes to PhenoFetch.

Version 0.2.1 (Current)

Released: 2025

• added product check
• add site check for product availability

Version 0.2.0

Released: 2025

Added

• New metadata command to extract and process information from downloaded metadata files
• Support for exporting metadata in multiple formats (CSV, JSON, Parquet)
• Filename parsing to extract date, time, and site information
• Batch processing capability for large metadata collections

Updated

• Documentation to include metadata command usage and examples
• Command-line interface with metadata subcommand

Version 0.1.1

Released: 2025

Added

• New estimate command to check download size before committing to large downloads
• Size estimation for full-resolution images and thumbnails
• Detailed breakdown of file sizes by type (full-res, thumbnail, metadata)
• Better error handling and reporting in size estimation

Updated

• Documentation to include size estimation workflow
• Progress bar display for better visibility during batch operations

Improved

• Terminal output formatting with Rich library

Version 0.1.0 (Initial Release)

Released: 2025

Features

• Initial implementation of PhenoFetch tool
• Basic commands: sites, stats, and download
• Asynchronous downloading capabilities
• Site information retrieval
• Data availability statistics