THE GEDI TEAM HAVE DEVELOPED AND CURATED A GLOBAL FIELD AND AIRBORNE LIDAR DATABASE TO CALIBRATE GEDI S EMPIRICAL ABOVEGROUND BIOMASS ALGORITHMS. MUCH OF THIS DATABASE WOULD BE USEFUL FOR MULTI-MISSION BIOMASS CALIBRATION AND VALIDATION ACTIVITIES SUCH AS FOR NASAS NISAR AND ICESAT-2 ESAS BIOMASS AND THE WIDER SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY. THE MULTI-MISSION ANALYSIS PLATFORM (MAP) IS IDEAL FOR THE DISSEMINATION OF THE PUBLIC OF THIS DATABASE AS WELL AS FOR ACCURATE LOCALLY OR REGIONALLY CALIBRATED AIRBORNE LIDAR BIOMASS MAPS. THE PROPOSED WORK WILL EXPAND THE GEOGRAPHIC SCOPE OF THE GEDI DATABASE TO INCLUDE BOREAL AND LOW BIOMASS SITES EXPAND THE TEMPORAL SCOPE TO INGEST CURRENT AND UPCOMING FIELD AND AIRBORNE CAMPAIGN DATA. THIS WORK PROVIDES A PATHWAY FOR TRANSPARENT AND TRANSFERABLE BIOMASS PRODUCT VALIDATION WITH AIRBORNE LIDAR AS RECOMMENDED BY UPCOMING COMMITTEE FOR EARTH OBSERVING SATELLITES (CEOS) LAND PRODUCT VALIDATION PROTOCOL (LPV) FOR ABOVEGROUND BIOMASS. THIS WORK WILL FOCUS SOLEY ON PUBLICALLY AVAILABLE FIELS AND AIRBORNE LIDAR DATA FOLLOWING THE NASA OPEN DATA POLICY HTTPS://SCIENCE.NASA.GOV/EARTH-SCIENCE/EARTH-SCIENCE-DATA-INFORMATION-POLICY/DATA-RIGHTS-RELATED-ISSUES. IN ADDITION TO CONTINUED CURATION OF THE GEDI CAL/VAL DATABASE WE ALSO PROPOSE TO ASSESS THE UTILITY OF PLANET HIGH RESOLUTION OPTICAL DATA TO TRACK FOREST DEGRADATION AND DISTURBANCE IN OUR CAL/VAL SITES. IT IS HIGHLY DESIRABLE TO USE AS MUCH OF THIS DATABASE A POSSIBLE FOR SPACEBORNE BIOMASS PRODUCT VALIDATION HOWEVER THE SUITABILITY OF THESE DATASETS FOR FUTURE VALIDATION REMAINS UNCLEAR. IF THE FOREST BIOMASS CHANGES AT A SITE (FROM GROWTH OR DISTURBANCE) THESE DATASETS WILL REQUIRE UPDATING TO REMAIN CURRENT. UNDERSTANDING WHETHER FIELDS AND AIRBORNE LIDAR DATASETS ARE CURRENT ENOUGH FOR SATELLITE BIOMASS ALGORITHM DEVELOPMENT AND PRODUCT VALIDATION IS CRITICAL TO THE MAAP GOALS. THUS THIS RESEARCH WILL EVALUATE WHETHER PLANET DATA CAN BE USED TO FLAG WHEN CAL/VAL SITES ARE VALID FOR COMPARISON TO SATELLITE FOREST STRUCTURE DATASETS OR WHEN THESE IN SITU DATASETS REQUIRE UPDATING

University Of Maryland, College Park, College Park MD

Investigators