OBJECTIVESTHE PRIMARY OBJECTIVES OF OUR RESEARCH ARE: (1) TO INDEPENDENTLY QUANTIFY THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BIOMASS DENSITY AND EXPECTED ERROR FROM GEDI NISAR AND ICESAT-2 IN HIGH AGB FORESTS IN SONOMA COUNTY COSTA RICA AND GABON (2) TO IDENTIFY THE SOURCES OF ERROR IN HIGH BIOMASS FORESTS FOR EACH MISSION INCLUDING FROM FIELD ESTIMATES (GPS ERROR ALLOMETRY) FROM ERRORS IN THE AIRBORNE /SPACEBORNE DATA (PENETRATION TO THE GROUND) AND FROM ERRORS IN EMPIRICAL MODELING (3) TO ASSESS DATA FUSION TECHNIQUES IN ORDER TO INCREASE THE ACCURACY OF AGB ESTIMATION THROUGH THE INTEGRATION OF THE AIRBORNE SIMULATORS FOR THE THREE MISSIONS (4) TO PROVIDE AGB STOCKAND ERROR MAPS TO LOCAL STAKEHOLDERS THROUGH A USER-FRIENDLY WEB PORTAL ENABLING THE ESTIMATION OF TOTAL AGB AND EXPECTED ERROR SPECIFICALLY WITHIN AREAS OF LOCAL INTEREST.METHODS/TECHNIQUESTHE PROPOSED RESEARCH FOCUSES ON ESTABLISHING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN AGB DENSITY AND ESTIMATION ERROR FOR EACH OF THREE FUTURE ACTIVE REMOTE SENSING NASA MISSIONS USING THREE STUDY AREAS WITH HIGH AGB FORESTS. WE PROPOSE TO USE EXISTING AIRBORNE DATASETS THAT HAVE BEEN COLLECTED OVER FORESTS IN GABON COSTA RICA AND SONOMA COUNTY AND TO PROCESS THESE DATASETS TO SIMULATE NISAR ICESAT-2 AND GEDI. FIELD DATA HAVE ALREADY BEEN COLLECTED IN ALL THREE STUDY SITES. NEW FIELD DATA WILL ALSO BE COLLECTED IN PARTICULARLY HIGH BIOMASS AREAS OF SONOMA COUNTY. FINALLY TERRESTRIAL LASER SCANNING (TLS) DATA WILL BE COLLECTED IN SONOMA COUNTY AS WELL AS PROVIDED TO THE RESEARCHTEAM FROM EXISTING COLLECTIONS IN GABON. THIS TLS DATA WILL QUANTIFY EXISTING OR EXPECTED ERRORS IN FIELD ESTIMATES OF AGB. LVIS AND DISCRETE RETURN AIRBORNE LASER SCANNING (ALS) DATA ARE THE DATA SOURCES USED TO SIMULATE GEDI THROUGH A GEDI WAVEFORM SIMULATOR ALREADY UNDER DEVELOPMENT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND. LVIS DATA HAS ALREADY BEEN COLLECTED IN COSTA RICA AND GABON AND ALS HAS BEEN COLLECTED IN SONOMA COUNTY. ALS DATA WILL ALSO BE USED TO SIMULATE ICESAT-2S ATLAS DATASET THROUGH A PHOTONCOUNTING SIMULATION ALREADY TESTED USING ALS DATA IN GABON. THIS SIMULATION WILL BE EXPANDED TO SONOMA COUNTY. FINALLY UAVSAR WILL BE USED TO SIMULATE NISAR. METRICS GLEANED FROM EACH SIMULATION PRODUCT WILL BE USED TO BUILD MISSION-INDEPENDENT AGB STOCK AND ERROR MODELS FOR EACH OF THE THREE DATASETS. FINALLY A PROTOTYPE DESIGN FOR FUTURE MISSION FUSION WILL BE DEVELOPED TO CAPITALIZE ON THE THREE INDEPENDENT SETS OF STRUCTURAL OBSERVATIONS FROM GEDI ICESAT-2 AND NISAR. ALL AGB AND ERROR MAPS WILL BE PROVIDED TO LOCAL STAKEHOLDERS VIA A CLOUD-BASED GIS SOFTWARE PACKAGE ECOMETRICA WHICH WILL ENABLE THE MANIPULATION OF MAPS TO PERFORM CARBON ACCOUNTING FOR LOCALLY RELEVANT LANDMANAGEMENT ACTIVITIES.PERCEIVED SIGNIFICANCETHROUGH COMPARING FUTURE MISSION UTILITY ON A SHARED SET OF FIELD OBSERVATIONS THE PROPOSED RESEARCH WILL PROVIDE A PRECISE AND COMPARABLE QUANTIFICATION OF EXPECTED ERRORS FROM GEDI ICESAT-2 AND NISAR IN HIGH AGB FORESTS. ADDITIONALLY METHODS WILL BE TESTED TO FUSE THESE THREE FUTURE DATASETS WITH THE INTENTION OF DEVELOPING BEST PRACTICES FOR AGB AND ERROR MRV. BY WORKING WITH SCIENTISTS FROM EACH OF THE THREE MISSIONS SCIENCE TEAMS THIS RESEARCH WILL PROVIDE AN UNBIASED ANALYSIS OF THE STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF THE FUTURE MISSIONS AND INFORM THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEXT GENERATION OF NASA ACTIVE RS INSTRUMENTS. ADDITIONALLY BY WORKING WITH LOCAL STAKEHOLDERS BOTH IN THE US AND ABROAD THE PROPOSED RESEARCH WILL FACILITATE KNOWLEDGE AND DATA TRANSFER FROMDATA DEVELOPERS TO DATA USERS IN THE HOPES THAT BEST PRACTICES CAN BE DEVELOPED TO OPTIMIZE THE UTILITY OF FUTURE MISSIONS PRODUCTS FOR CARBON MONITORING INITIATIVES SUCH AS REDD+.