The NASA AfriSAR campaign: Airborne SAR and lidar measurements of tropical forest structure and biomass in support of current and future space missions

In 2015 and 2016, the AfriSAR campaign was carried out as a collaborative effort among international space and National Park agencies (ESA, NASA, ONERA, DLR, ANPN and AGEOS) in support of the upcoming ESA BIOMASS, NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) and NASA Global Ecosystem Dynamics Initiati...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Remote sensing of environment 2021-10, Vol.264, p.112533, Article 112533
Main Authors: Fatoyinbo, Temilola, Armston, John, Simard, Marc, Saatchi, Sassan, Denbina, Michael, Lavalle, Marco, Hofton, Michelle, Tang, Hao, Marselis, Suzanne, Pinto, Naiara, Hancock, Steven, Hawkins, Brian, Duncanson, Laura, Blair, Bryan, Hansen, Christy, Lou, Yunling, Dubayah, Ralph, Hensley, Scott, Silva, Carlos, Poulsen, John R., Labrière, Nicolas, Barbier, Nicolas, Jeffery, Kathryn, Kenfack, David, Herve, Memiaghe, Bissiengou, Pulchérie, Alonso, Alfonso, Moussavou, Ghislain, White, Lee T.J., Lewis, Simon, Hibbard, Kathleen
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
AfriSAR
Airborne Campaigns
Airborne sensing
Biodiversity
Biodiversity and Ecology
BIOMASS
Botanics
Calibration
Canopies
Carbon cycle
Central Africa
Ecology, environment
Ecosystem dynamics
Ecosystems
Environmental Sciences
Forest biomass
Forest Structure
Forests
Gabon
GEDI
Lidar
Lidar measurements
Life Sciences
LVIS
Motivation
National parks
NISAR
Polarimetry
PolInSAR
Radar
SAR
Space missions
Spaceborne lidar
Synthetic aperture radar
Systematics, Phylogenetics and taxonomy
Tropical Forest
Tropical forests
UAVSAR
Vegetal Biology
Vegetation
Water resources
Waveforms
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Summary:In 2015 and 2016, the AfriSAR campaign was carried out as a collaborative effort among international space and National Park agencies (ESA, NASA, ONERA, DLR, ANPN and AGEOS) in support of the upcoming ESA BIOMASS, NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) and NASA Global Ecosystem Dynamics Initiative (GEDI) missions. The NASA contribution to the campaign was conducted in 2016 with the NASA LVIS (Land Vegetation and Ice Sensor) Lidar, the NASA L-band UAVSAR (Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar). A central motivation for the AfriSAR deployment was the common AGBD estimation requirement for the three future spaceborne missions, the lack of sufficient airborne and ground calibration data covering the full range of ABGD in tropical forest systems, and the intercomparison and fusion of the technologies. During the campaign, over 7000 km2 of waveform Lidar data from LVIS and 30,000 km2 of UAVSAR data were collected over 10 key sites and transects. In addition, field measurements of forest structure and biomass were collected in sixteen 1-hectare sized plots. The campaign produced gridded Lidar canopy structure products, gridded aboveground biomass and associated uncertainties, Lidar based vegetation canopy cover profile products, Polarimetric Interferometric SAR and Tomographic SAR products and field measurements. Our results showcase the types of data products and scientific results expected from the spaceborne Lidar and SAR missions; we also expect that the AfriSAR campaign data will facilitate further analysis and use of waveform lidar and multiple baseline polarimetric SAR datasets for carbon cycle, biodiversity, water resources and more applications by the greater scientific community. •In 2016, the international collaborative air and field campaign AfriSAR took place•The data provides calibration and validation for NASA GEDI, NISAR and ESA BIOMASS•NASA collected coincident L-band SAR (UAVSAR) and waveform Lidar (LVIS) data•We produced SAR- and Lidar derived canopy height, biomass and vertical profile datasets•We provide an overview of the airborne mission, data products and applications
ISSN:0034-4257
1879-0704
DOI:10.1016/j.rse.2021.112533