NASA GEDI
Estimates of aboveground carbon stocks are derived from a patchwork of methods that vary in quality and sampling density. Scientists lack consensus about the size of the forest carbon stock and the role of forests in the global carbon cycle. The NASA Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) was designed to overcome these challenges by placing a multibeam waveform lidar into low Earth orbit on the International Space Station. GEDI is a competitively selected NASA mission producing globally representative measurements of the vertical distribution of vegetation in temperate and tropical forests, woodlands and savannas, and is the first spaceborne laser measurement system optimized for vegetation structure. The instrument successfully launched to the International Space Station in December, 2018 and began collecting data early in 2019.
Quantifying carbon stocks using remote sensing requires statistical relationships between measured variables and field estimates of aboveground carbon density. Our approach to developing these models is data driven. We develop candidate models that are stratified by plant functional type and geographic world regions, and we evaluate models with varying numbers of predictors and transformations to identify the subset with the best performance. Ongoing work funded by NASA is evaluating the potential for machine learning to predict aboveground carbon density using GEDI data, and changes to stratification and quality filtering that will increase the amount of usable GEDI data.
Collaborators: Dr. Laura Duncanson (University of Maryland, College Park), Dr. John Armston (University of Maryland, College Park), Dr. Matthew Harrison (Brown University, Applied Mathematics), Dr. David Laidlaw (Brown University, Computer Science), Dr. James Tompkin (Brown University, Computer Science), Dr. Mark Friedl (Boston University), Dr., Paulo Arevalo (Boston University) and the GEDI Science Team.
Funding source: NASA GEDI Mission and Competed Science Teams
Publications:
GEDI L4B Gridded Aboveground Biomass Density, Version 2.1.
Dubayah, R. O., Armston, J., Healey, S. P., Yang, Z., Patterson, P. l., Saarela, S., Stahl, G., Duncanson, L., Kellner, J. R., Bruening, J., Pascual, A. ORNL DAAC. Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA. [ Full Text ]
Assessing the performance of NASA’s GEDI L4A footprint aboveground biomass density models using National Forest Inventory and airborne laser scanning data in Mediterranean forest ecosystems.
Pascual, A., Guerra-Hernández, J., Armston, J., Duncanson, L., Minor, D. M., Kellner, J. R., Dubayah, R. O. Forest Ecology and Management. 538. [ Full Text ]
GEDI L4A Footprint Level Aboveground Biomass Density, Version 2.1.
Dubayah, R. O., Armston, J., Kellner, J. R., Duncanson, L., Healey, S. P., Patterson, P. L., Hancock, S., Tang, H., Bruening, J., Hofton, M. A., Blair, J. B., Luthcke, S. B. ORNL DAAC. Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA. [ Full Text ]
GEDI L4A Footprint Level Aboveground Biomass Density, Golden Weeks, Version 1.
Dubayah, R. O., Armston, J., Kellner, J. R., Duncanson, L., Healey, S. P., Patterson, P. L., Hancock, S., Tang, H., Hofton, M. A., Blair, J. B., Luthcke, S. R. ORNL DAAC. Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA. [ Full Text ]
GEDI L4B Gridded Aboveground Biomass Density, Version 2.
Dubayah, R. O., Armston, J., Healey, S. P., Yang, Z., Patterson, P. l., Saarela, S., Stahl, G., Duncanson, L., Kellner, J. R. ORNL DAAC. Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA. [ Full Text ]
Algorithm theoretical basis document for GEDI footprint aboveground biomass density.
Kellner, J. R., Armston, J., Duncanson, L. Earth and Space Science. 10.1029/2022EA002516. [ Full Text ]
GEDI launches a new era of biomass inference from space.
Dubayah, R. O., Armston, J., Healey, S. P., Bruening, J. M., Patterson, P. L., Kellner, J. R., Duncanson, L., Saarella, S., Ståhl, G., Yang, Z., Tang, H., Blair, J. B., Fatoyinbo, L., Goetz, S., Hancock, S., Hansen, M., Hofton, M., Hurtt G., Luthcke, S. Environmental Research Letters. 17: 095001. [ Full Text ]
Aboveground biomass density models for NASA’s Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) lidar mission. Remote Sensing of Environment.
Duncanson, L., Kellner, J.R., Armston, J., Dubayah, R., Minor, D.M., Hancock, S., Healey, S.P., Patterson, P.L., Saarela, S., Marselis, S., Silva, C.E., Bruening, J., Goetz, S.J., Tang, H., Hofton, M., Blair, B., Luthcke, S., Fatoyinbo, L., Abernethy, K., Alonso, A., Andersen, H.-E., Aplin, P., Baker, T.R., Barbier, N., Bastin, J.F., Biber, P., Boeckx, P., Bogaert, J., Boschetti, L., Boucher, P.B., Boyd, D.S., Burslem, D.F.R.P., Calvo-Rodriguez, S., Chave, J., Chazdon, R.L., Clark, D.B., Clark, D.A., Cohen, W.B., Coomes, D.A., Corona, P., Cushman, K.C., Cutler, M.E.J., Dalling, J.W., Dalponte, M., Dash, J., de-Miguel, S., Deng, S., Ellis, P.W., Erasmus, B., Fekety, P.A., Fernandez-Landa, A., Ferraz, A., Fischer, R., Fisher, A.G., García-Abril, A., Gobakken, T., Hacker, J.M., Heurich, M., Hill, R.A., Hopkinson, C., Huang, H., Hubbell, S.P., Hudak, A.T., Huth, A., Imbach, B., Jeffery, K.J., Katoh, M., Kearsley, E., Kenfack, D., Kljun, N., Knapp, N., Král, K., Krůček, M., Labrière, N., Lewis, S.L., Longo, M., Lucas, R.M., Main, R., Manzanera, J.A., Martínez, R.V., Mathieu, R., Memiaghe, H., Meyer, V., Mendoza, A.M., Monerris, A., Montesano, P., Morsdorf, F., Næsset, E., Naidoo, L., Nilus, R., O’Brien, M., Orwig, D.A., Papathanassiou, K., Parker, G., Philipson, C., Phillips, O.L., Pisek, J., Poulsen, J.R., Pretzsch, H., Rüdiger, C., Saatchi, S., Sanchez-Azofeifa, A., Sanchez-Lopez, N., Scholes, R., Silva, C.A., Simard, M., Skidmore, A., Stereńczak, K., Tanase, M., Torresan, C., Valbuena, R., Verbeeck, H., Vrska, T., Wessels, K., White, J.C., White, L.J.T., Zahabu, E., Zgraggen, C. Remote Sensing of Environment. 270: 112845. [ Full Text ]
GEDI L4A Footprint Level Aboveground Biomass Density, Version 2.
Dubayah, R.O., Armston, J., Kellner, J. R., Duncanson, L., Healey, S.P. Patterson, P.L., Hancock, S., Tang, H., Bruening, J., Hofton, M. A., Blair, J. B., Luthcke, S. B. ORNL DAAC. Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA. [ Full Text ]
GEDI L4A Footprint Level Aboveground Biomass Density, Version 1.
Dubayah, R.O., J. Armston, J.R. Kellner, L. Duncanson, S.P. Healey, P.L. Patterson, S. Hancock, H. Tang, M.A. Hofton, J.B. Blair, Luthcke, S. B. ORNL DAAC. Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA. [ Full Text ]
Biomass estimation from simulated GEDI, ICESat-2 and NISAR across environmental gradients in Sonoma County, California..
Duncanson, L., Neuenschwander, A., Hancock, S. Thomas, N., Fatoyinbo, T., Simard, M. Silva, C. A., Armston, J. Luthcke, S. B., Hofton, M. Kellner, J. R., Dubayah, R. Remote Sensing of Environment. 242: 111779. [ Full Text ]
The Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation: high-resolution laser ranging of the Earth’s forests and topography.
Dubayah, R., Blair, J. B., Goetz, S., Fatoyinbo, L., Hansen, M., Healey, S., Hurtt, G., Kellner, J. R., Luthcke, S. Armston, J. Tang, H., Duncanson, L., Hancock, S., Jantz, P., Marselis, S. M., Patterson, P., Qi, W., and Silva, C. Science of Remote Sensing 1:100002. 2020. [ Full Text ]
Statistical properties of hybrid estimators proposed for GEDI – NASA’s Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation.
Patterson, P. L., Healey, S. P., Stahl, G., Saarela, S., Holm, S., Andersen, H., Dubayah, R. O., Duncanson, L., Hancock, S., Armston, J., Kellner, J. R., Cohen, W. B., and Yang, Z. Environmental Research Letters. 2019. [ Full Text ]
The GEDI simulator: A large-footprint waveform lidar simulator for calibration and validation of spaceborne missions.
Hancock, S., Armston, J., Hofton, M., Sun, X., Tang, H., Duncanson, L. I., Kellner, J. R., and R. O. Dubayah Earth and Space Science. 2019. [ Full Text ]
