The 2011 Eco3D Flight Campaign

Temilola E. Fatoyinbo, NASA GSFC, lola.fatoyinbo@nasa.gov (Presenter)
Rafael Rincon, NASA GSFC, rafael.rincon@nasa.gov
David Harding, NASA GSFC, david.j.harding@nasa.gov
Charles K. Gatebe, URSA/NASA GSFC, charles.k.gatebe@nasa.gov
Kenneth Jon Ranson, NASA GSFC, kenneth.j.ranson@nasa.gov

We carried out a field campaign to measure vegetation 3D structure and carbon storage across multiple forest types in August 2011. The Eco3D flight campaign consists of 3 instruments developed at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center: DBSAR (Digital Beamforming Synthetic Aperture Radar, SIMPL (Slope Imaging Multi Polarimetric Lidar) and CAR (Cloud Aerosol Radiometer) flying simultaneously on the NASA P-3 aircraft. DBSAR is a digital beamforming L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) that will provide critical information on vegetation structure needed to estimate vegetation biomass. Polarimetric and Interferometric SAR data collected during the campaigns will be used to validate biomass estimates in order to advance our understanding of the carbon cycle. DBSAR data will be used to advance the use of digital beamforming SAR for to map tree heights, forest biomass, and land cover type. SIMPL is a multi-beam, micropulse, single photon ranging laser altimeter that will provide measurements of forest canopy structure with very high spatial resolution and dual-wavelength polarimetry data that can be used for differentiate stand types. CAR is an airborne multi-wavelength scanning radiometer that can measure spectral directional reflectance over uniform forests, homogenous clouds, and bright targets.

The main objectives of the Eco3D flight campaign were:

1) To acquire coordinated active (lidar and radar) and passive (radiometer) data over forest ecosystems,

2) To measure the 3 dimensional structure (in terms of tree height and density) of North American Forests, and

3) To measure above ground biomass and carbon storage in forest ecosystems ranging from boreal forests to tropical wetlands.

We selected a total of 10 forest sites ranging from the Laurentides Park in Quebec, Canada to the Everglades National Park in Florida. The flightlines were designed to maximize the acquisition of data over diverse land cover types with recent ground-based forest canopy measurements. As a result this data set represents a comprehensive multisensor collection over diverse and well-characterized forest sites.

Presentation Type:  Poster

Session:  Other   (Mon 4:00 PM)

Associated Project(s): 

• Related Activity

Poster Location ID: 18