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Funded Research

A Community-Driven, North American Disturbance Record and Processing System for Land Satellite Data

Masek, Jeffrey (Jeff): NASA GSFC (Project Lead)
Cohen, Warren: USDA Forest Service (Participant)
Goward, Samuel: University of Maryland (Participant)
Hall, Forrest: Retired (Participant)
Huang, Chengquan (Cheng): University of Maryland (Participant)
Wolfe, Robert: NASA GSFC (Participant)

Project Funding: 2004 - 2007

NRA: 2004 Unsolicited   

Funded by NASA

Abstract:
A Community-Driven, North American Disturbance Record and Processing System for Land Satellite Data Forest-cover conversion, disturbance, and recovery have been proposed as primary mechanisms for transferring carbon between the land surface and the atmosphere, but the area and timing of these processes is still poorly quantified. Our project (LEDAPS – Landsat Ecosystem Disturbance Adaptive Processing System) has been funded to “mine” the 35 year Landsat observational record in order to assess forest disturbance across North America, in support of the USGCRP North American Carbon Program. Landsat TM and ETM+ data are being atmospherically corrected using algorithms and processing approaches derived from MODIS. To date, some 2200 Landsat images covering North America have been atmospherically corrected, and can be downloaded from the LEDAPS web site (http://ledaps.nascom.nasa.gov/ledaps/ledaps_NorthAmerica.html). Disturbance and recovery are being mapped using a multi-spectral “Disturbance Index” algorithm originally published by Healey et al (2005). Products recording the distribution of disturbance (biomass loss) and recovery (biomass gain) at the pixel level will be released, as well as aggregated products (500m, 1/20th degree resolution) suitable for modeling.

Publications:

Masek, J. G., Vermote, E. F., Saleous, N. E., Wolfe, R., Hall, F. G., Huemmrich, K. F., Gao, F., Kutler, J., Lim, T. 2006. A Landsat Surface Reflectance Dataset for North America, 1990-2000. IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters. 3(1), 68-72. DOI: 10.1109/LGRS.2005.857030

Masek, J. G., Collatz, G. J. 2006. Estimating forest carbon fluxes in a disturbed southeastern landscape: Integration of remote sensing, forest inventory, and biogeochemical modeling. Journal of Geophysical Research. 111(G1). DOI: 10.1029/2005JG000062

2008 NASA Carbon Cycle & Ecosystems Joint Science Workshop Posters

  • Validation of Near-Annual Resolution Forest Change Maps Derived from Landsat Data   --   (Warren B. Cohen, Maria Fiorella, Robert E. Kennedy, Zhiqiang Yang, Scott L. Powell, Melinda Moeur)   [abstract]   [poster]
  • A Strategy for Developing Earth Science Data Records of Global Forest Cover Change   --   (John R Townshend, Chengquan Huang, Jeffrey G. Masek, Matthew C. Hansen, Ruth S. DeFries, Samuel N. Goward, Compton J. Tucker)   [abstract]
  • Decadal Analyses of Forest Disturbance Patterns and Rates from Moderate Resolution Satellite Data   --   (Jeffrey Masek, Forrest Hall, Robert Wolfe, Chengquan Huang, Warren Cohen, Feng Gao, Jonathan Kutler)   [abstract]

More details may be found in the following project profile(s):