Integration of Forest Inventory Data with Landsat Time Series Data for Characterization of Forest Disturbance and Regrowth: Joint Objectives of the North American Carbon Program (NACP) and Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA)
Scott
L
Powell, USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, Corvallis, OR 97331, scottpowell@fs.fed.us
(Presenting)
Warren
B
Cohen, USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, Corvallis, OR 97331, wcohen@fs.fed.us
Sean
P
Healey, USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Ogden, UT 84401, seanhealey@fs.fed.us
Robert
E
Kennedy, USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, Corvallis, OR 97331, robertkennedy@fs.fed.us
Gretchen
G
Moisen, USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Ogden, UT 84401, gmoisen@fs.fed.us
Sam
N
Goward, Department of Geography, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, sgoward@umd.edu
Jeff
G
Masek, Biospheric Sciences Branch, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, Jeffrey.G.Masek@nasa.gov
Chengquan
Huang, Department of Geography, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, cqhuang@geog.umd.edu
The objectives of both the North American Carbon Program (NACP) and Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) hinge on the integration of remotely sensed satellite observations with field measurements. To complement the Landsat satellite archive, we are compiling FIA data from over half of the states in the U.S. in support of the NACP and FIA goals to improve understanding of forest disturbance and regrowth dynamics. Tree-level FIA observations are aggregated to the plot-level, associated with corresponding Landsat spectral and ancillary data, and used to develop empirical models of aboveground biomass. These models are then applied to 20+ year stacks of normalized Landsat satellite images for each of 23 sample scenes across the U.S. The linkage between complementary FIA and Landsat datasets enables scaling of biomass estimates in both space and time, which in turn enables analysis of multidecadal trajectories of biomass dynamics associated with forest disturbance and regrowth. Additionally, FIA data are used to validate estimates of “time since disturbance” derived from spectral trajectories. Preliminary results from several test sites confirm that FIA data are a valuable and practical complement to the Landsat satellite archive, and that biomass trajectories associated with forest disturbance and regrowth can be captured across a wide range of forest conditions and disturbance types.