Retrieval of Vegetation Structure and Carbon Balance Parameters Using Ground-Based Lidar and Scaling to Airborne and Spaceborne Lidar Sensors
Alan
Strahler, Boston University, alan@bu.edu
(Presenting)
Wenge
Ni-Meister, Hunter College of CUNY, Wenge.Ni-Meister@hunter.cuny.edu
(Presenting)
Curtis
Woodcock, Boston University, curtis@bu.edu
Xiaowen
Li, Beijing Normal University, lix@bnu.edu.cn
David
Jupp, CSIRO Australia, David.Jupp@csiro.au
Darius
Culvenor, CSIRO Australia, Darius.Culvenor@csiro.au
This research will use ground-based, upward-scanning hemispherical lidar to retrieve forest canopy structural information, including tree height, mean tree diameter, basal area, stem count density, crown diameter, woody biomass, and green biomass, and link this information to airborne and spaceborne lidars to provide large-area mapping of structural and biomass parameters. The terrestrial lidar instrument, Echidna(TM), developed by CSIRO Australia, allows rapid acquisition of vegetation structure data that can be readily integrated with downward-looking airborne lidar, such as LVIS (Laser Vegetation Imaging Sensor), and spaceborne lidar, such as GLAS (Geoscience Laser Altimeter System) on ICESat.
Lidar waveforms and vegetation structure will be linked for these three sensors through the hybrid geometric-optical radiative-transfer (GORT) model, which uses basic vegetation structure parameters and principles of geometric optics, coupled with radiative transfer theory, to model scattering and absorption of light by collections of individual plant crowns. Use of a common model for lidar waveforms at ground, airborne, and spaceborne levels will facilitate integration and scaling of the data to provide large-area maps and inventories of vegetation structure and carbon stocks.
Our research plan includes acquisition of Echidna(TM) under-canopy hemispherical lidar scans at North American test sites where LVIS and GLAS data have been or are being acquired; analysis and modeling of spatially coincident lidar waveforms acquired by the three sensor systems; linking of the three data sources using the GORT model; and mapping of vegetation structure and carbon-balance parameters at LVIS and GLAS resolutions based on Echidna(TM) measurements.