Hall, Forrest: Retired (Project Lead)
Project Funding:
2011 - 2014
NRA: 2009 NASA: The Science of Terra and Aqua
Funded by NASA
Abstract:
New terrestrial ecosystem products for biomass, biomass change and 3-D vegetation structure are proposed. An established algorithm (BioPHYS-MFM) will be applied in the domain of multi-platform, multi-sensor data fusion involving primary MODIS data sets, together with multisource Landsat and Radar (ALOS PALSAR) imagery, set in the context of future DESDynI mission data and analysis needs. Multi-date spatial products and maps will be validated against ground and aircraft LiDAR-derived values, and assessed over a range of applications for key ecosystems in the Sierra Nevada, US East Coast, northern boreal forest (BOREAS and elsewhere), and in the tropics. While representing a new set of important ecosystem products from MODIS, this proposal is also responsive to the need for innovation in multi-sensor data fusion and retrieval. Further, it will provide essential capabilities in preparation for future missions, while providing key information products in the meantime. Future missions for retrieving biomass information are not scheduled for a decade or more this proposal thus has an immediacy in terms of provision of core data products, as well as being directly relevant to planned missions in the decades that follow. The current work will provide important biomass and biomass change information, and over many if not all types of forested areas.
The algorithm foundation for the current proposal is BioPHYS-MFM, a large, integrated software package funded through the NASA ROSES 2006 initiative that has contributed to the MODIS Science Team and resulted in significant progress in the field of biophysical structural information retrieval. BioPHYS is based on innovative and flexible methods implemented for the inversion of canopy reflectance models. The approach includes 3D specification of physical objects and is compatible with radiative transfer inputs from land surface reflectance, although BioPHYS can also be used with lower level and raw image data.
The BioPHYS approach has been extensively used and validated over a range of applications in collaboration with agencies in the USA and Canada over the past decade, such as with the MODIS Science Team, in the BOREAS and NASA COVER projects, the Landsat Ecosystem Disturbance Adaptive Processing System (LEDAPS) and as part of NASA's contribution to the North American Carbon Program BioPHYS-MFM has been used for land cover, biomass, stand and crown volume, stem density, height, crown closure, leaf area index (LAI) and branch area, crown dimension, productivity, topographic correction and validation, structural and partial harvest change detection, forest fire mapping and structural change, mountain pine beetle forest damage assessment, and water / hydrology applications. These have been validated in a variety of different ecosystems and locations in the USA and Canada.
2015 NASA Carbon Cycle & Ecosystems Joint Science Workshop Poster(s)
- Terrestrial Ecosystem, Carbon Cycle, Landuse Landcover Change, Biodiversity (TECLUB) Measurement Requirements for the Next Decade
-- (Forrest G Hall, Scott J Goetz)
[abstract]
2011 NASA Carbon Cycle & Ecosystems Joint Science Workshop Poster(s)
- Inferring Photosynthetic Light-Use Efficiency of Terrestrial Ecosystems from Multi-angular Satellite Observations.
-- (Thomas Hilker, Forrest Garner Hall, Nicholas C Coops, Compton Tucker, Nichol Caroline, T Andrew Black)
[abstract]
[poster]
More details may be found in the following project profile(s):
