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Usage

PhenoFetch provides a straightforward command-line interface for downloading and analyzing PhenoCam data. This page covers the basic usage patterns and common workflows.

Command Structure

All PhenoFetch commands follow this basic structure:

phenofetch [command] [options]

The main commands are:

  • sites - List all available PhenoCam sites
  • stats - Display statistics for a site
  • estimate - Estimate download size for a date range
  • download - Download data for a specific site and date range

Getting Help

To see all available commands and options:

phenofetch --help

For help with a specific command:

phenofetch [command] --help

Common Arguments

Many commands share common arguments:

  • --site - NEON site code (e.g., ABBY, BART)
  • --product - NEON product ID (e.g., DP1.00033)
  • --start-date - Start date in YYYY-MM-DD format
  • --end-date - End date in YYYY-MM-DD format

Basic Workflow

A typical workflow with PhenoFetch might look like this:

  1. Discover available sites: 

    phenofetch sites

  2. Check site statistics to understand data availability: 

    phenofetch stats --site HARV --product DP1.00033

  3. Estimate download size before committing to a large download: 

    phenofetch estimate --site ABBY --product DP1.00033 --start-date 2022-01-01 --end-date 2022-01-31

  4. Download the data: 

    phenofetch download --site ABBY --product DP1.00033 --start-date 2022-01-01 --end-date 2022-01-31 --download --output-dir ./my_phenocam_data

Understanding Download Output

When downloading data, PhenoFetch will create a directory structure that preserves the organization of the files:

output_dir/
├── full_res/
│   ├── image1.jpg
│   ├── image2.jpg
│   └── ...
├── thumbnails/
│   ├── thumb1.jpg
│   ├── thumb2.jpg
│   └── ...
└── meta/
    ├── metadata1.meta
    ├── metadata2.meta
    └── ...
  • full_res/ - Contains full-resolution images
  • thumbnails/ - Contains thumbnail images
  • meta/ - Contains metadata files

Managing Downloads

PhenoFetch provides several options to manage downloads effectively:

  • Batch size: Control how many files are processed in each batch 

    --batch-size 100

  • Concurrency: Set maximum number of concurrent downloads (by default, this is auto-determined based on your system resources) 

    --concurrency 8

  • Timeout: Set connection timeout in seconds 

    --timeout 60

Preview Mode

To see what files would be downloaded without actually downloading them:

phenofetch download --site ABBY --product DP1.00033 --start-date 2022-01-01 --end-date 2022-01-31

Note that omitting the --download flag will only show a summary of available files.