Treuhaft, Robert: Jet Propulsion Laboratory / Caltech (Project Lead)
Project Funding:
2011 - 2012
NRA: 2010 NASA: Science Definition Team for Carbon Monitoring System
Funded by NASA
Abstract:
This proposal for Robert Treuhaft's (proposer) membership in the Carbon Monitoring System (CMS) Science Definition Team (SDT) pertains to the Biomass and Carbon Storage Pilot Product (BCSP). In order to develop national and eventually global carbon storage and change products, the proposer will focus on the following objectives: 1) Organize a systematic review of all technical approaches to remote biomass estimation, including their interrelations and complementarity, for the use of SDT members in guiding core efforts; 2) Review and recommend refinements to data fusion strategies, providing guidance on systematic, and, where possible, model-based modes of combining data types; 3) Guide quantitative error analysis used to validate the BCSP, addressing errors in both field and remotely sensed biomass estimates; and 4) Develop a plan for global biomass monitoring articulating the technical challenges and possible alternative data fusion strategies for tropical forests. The first objective will address the wide variety of approaches to biomass estimation to bring all SDT members to the "same page". In the second objective, "data fusion" means the combining of several observations to estimate one quantity, biomass in this case. Undoubtedly a variety of sensors will be needed to estimate biomass with the best accuracy and coverage. The third objective on error analysis is aimed at a quantitative evaluation plan in the form of an error budget, modeled after more recent publications in which both remote sensing and field measurement errors are considered. The fourth objective addresses the plans for a global biomass product by concentrating on the complexities and challenges of remote sensing of tropical forests outside of the continental United States.
The approach and methodology of the proposal is based on a conceptual picture which breaks biomass estimation into three categories: 1) Model-based estimation uses structural features of forests, such as height or profile moments, estimated from remote sensing data, along with ancillary data types to derive correlations between the remote sensing data and biomass. 2) Structure-based estimation draws correlations between structural features of forests from either lidar or InSAR. 3) Observation-based estimation uses remote sensing observations directly without first estimating structure.
Because the BCSP must be a multi-sensor product, the first two objectives are significant in that they will enable guidance from the SDT on the optimal use of many different sensors toward the most accurate biomass estimates. Parameter estimation approaches used by the proposer in previous work will be part of his guidance as to methods for combining data types. The third objective on error analysis is significant in that the SDT is charged to establish an evaluation plan for the BCSP. The significance of developing a plan for global monitoring lies in the inclusion of tropical forests in biomass estimation algorithms. Because they are the most complex forest target, constitute about 50% of the Earth's biomass, and there have been a few different approaches to biomass estimation in tropical forests published, it will be important for the SDT to guide the Centers regarding tropical forests in a global product. The proposer has spent most his time in the last 6
years working on tropical forests. The proposer's experience in the correspondence between bulk canopy structural characteristics from lidar or interferometric SAR and biomass will also contribute to actuating the above objectives.
Publications:
Treuhaft, R., Gonzalves, F., dos Santos, J. R., Keller, M., Palace, M., Madsen, S. N., Sullivan, F., Graca, P. M. L. A. 2015. Tropical-Forest Biomass Estimation at X-Band From the Spaceborne TanDEM-X Interferometer. IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters. 12(2), 239-243. DOI: 10.1109/LGRS.2014.2334140
Treuhaft, R., Lei, Y., Goncalves, F., Keller, M., Santos, J., Neumann, M., Almeida, A. 2017. Tropical-Forest Structure and Biomass Dynamics from TanDEM-X Radar Interferometry. Forests. 8(8), 277. DOI: 10.3390/f8080277
Treuhaft R, Gonçalves FG, Chapman B, Neumann M, dos Santos JR, Graça PMLA. (2013) Relationships Between Remotely Sensed Forest Structure and Biomass: Fourier Structure From Lidar and InSAR and Penetration at Microwave Frequencies, Revista Brasileira de Cartografia 65(4), 747-755, ISSN: 1808-0936
2013 NASA Terrestrial Ecology Science Team Meeting Poster(s)
- Tropical Forest Structure and Biomass Estimation from Bistatic InSAR at X-band (TanDEM-X), Small-Spot Lidar, and Field Measurements in the Amazonian Basin
-- (Robert Neil Treuhaft, Fabio G. Goncalves, Joao Roberto dos Santos, Soren Madsen, Michael Palace, Michael Keller, Scott Hensley)
[abstract]
More details may be found in the following project profile(s):
