NASA AfriSAR Project

Description

This data set contains geotagged images collected over Gabon, Africa. The images were taken by the NASA Digital Mapping Camera paired with the Land, Vegetation, and Ice Sensor (LVIS), an airborne lidar scanning laser altimeter. The data were collected as part of a NASA campaign, in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA) mission AfriSAR.

AFLVIS1B

This data set contains return energy waveform data over Gabon, Africa. The measurements were taken by the NASA Land, Vegetation, and Ice Sensor (LVIS), an airborne lidar scanning laser altimeter. The data were collected as part of a NASA campaign, in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA) mission AfriSAR.

AFLVIS2

This data set contains surface elevation data over Gabon, Africa. The measurements were taken by the NASA Land, Vegetation, and Ice Sensor (LVIS), an airborne lidar scanning laser altimeter. The data were collected as part of a NASA campaign, in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA) mission AfriSAR.

AfriSAR_AGB_Maps_1681

This dataset provides gridded estimates of aboveground biomass (AGB) for four sites in Gabon at 0.25 ha (50 m) resolution derived with field measurements and airborne LiDAR data collected from 2010 to 2016. The sites represent a mix of forested, savannah, and some agricultural and disturbed landcover types: Lope site, within Lope National Park; Mabounie, mostly forested site; Mondah Forest, protected area; and the Rabi forest site, part of the Smithsonian Institution of Global Earth Observatories world-wide network of forest plots. Plot-level biophysical measurements of tree diameter and tree height (or estimated by allometry) were performed at 1 ha and 0.25 ha scales on multiple plots at each site and used to derive AGB for each tree and then summed for each plot. Aerial LiDAR scans were used to construct digital elevation models (DEM) and digital surface models (DSM), and then the DEM and DSM were used to construct a canopy height model (CHM) at 1 m resolution. After checking site-plot locations against the CHM, mean canopy height (MCH) was computed over each 0.25 ha. A single regression model relating MCH and AGB estimates, incorporating local height based on the trunk DBH (HD) relationships, was produced for all sites and combined with the CHM layer to construct biomass maps at 0.25 ha resolution.

AfriSAR_LVIS_Footprint_Cover_1591

This dataset includes footprint-level canopy structure products derived from data collected using NASA's Land, Vegetation, and Ice Sensor (LVIS) during flights over five forested sites in Gabon during February and March 2016. Three types of canopy structure information are included for each flight: 1) vertical profiles of canopy cover fraction in 1-meter bins, 2) vertical profiles of plant area index (PAI) in 1-meter bins, and 3) footprint summary data of total recorded energy, leaf area index, canopy cover fraction, and vertical foliage profiles in 10-meter bins. Canopy structure metrics are provided for each waveform (20-m footprint) collected by the LVIS instrument. These data were collected by NASA as part of the AfriSAR project. AfriSAR is a NASA collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA), German Aerospace Center (DLR), and the Gabonese Space Agency (AGEOS) that is collecting data useful for deriving forest canopy structure and will help prepare for and calibrate current and upcoming spaceborne missions that aim to gauge the role of forests in Earth's carbon cycle.

Polarimetric_CT_1601

This dataset contains forest vertical structure and associated uncertainty products derived by applying multi-baseline Polarimetric Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (PolInSAR) and Polarimetric Coherence Tomographic SAR (PCT or PC-TomoSAR) techniques. The data were collected from multiple repeat-pass flights over Gabonese forests using the Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) instrument in February-March 2016. In addition, supplementary data products based on various intermediate parameters of the UAVSAR data are provided and include radar backscatter, coherence, and viewing and terrain geometry. These data were collected by NASA as part of the joint NASA/ESA AfriSAR campaign.

Afrisar_LVIS_Biomass_VProfiles_1775

This dataset contains gridded forest characterization products derived from full-waveform lidar data acquired by NASA's airborne Land, Vegetation, and Ice Sensor (LVIS) instrument for five forested sites in Gabon, Africa, during the 2016 NASA-ESA AfriSAR campaign. The LVIS lidar instrument was flown over study sites in Lope, Mondah/Akanda, Pongara, Rabi, and Mabouni from February to March 2016. Derived canopy cover, canopy heights, bare ground elevation, plant area index (PAI), and foliage height diversity (FHD), and respective uncertainties are provided at a 25 m resolution for each of the five study sites. Aboveground biomass density (AGBD) and uncertainty were modeled at 50 m and 100 m resolutions for the Lope, Mondah, and Mabounie sites using field inventory data and waveform height and cover metrics. Lidar grid cell data collection statistics (i.e., number of shots and flight lines) and a data mask are also included. This research leverages high-quality forest inventory datasets collected during the AfriSAR campaign for one of the least studied and most unique forest ecosystems in the world.

AfriSAR_Mondah_Field_Data_1580

This dataset provides plot-level estimates of basal area, aboveground biomass, number of trees, maximum tree height, and basal-area-weighted wood specific gravity that were derived from observations of nearly 6,700 individual trees including tree family, species, DBH, the height of each tree, and their x, y location within 25 x 25 m subplots. These field data were collected from 15 1-hectare plots located across the Mondah Forest of Gabon as part of the AfriSAR Campaign in 2016. These biophysical and biomass data were used for training models to derive the AfriSAR remote sensing-based aboveground biomass products.

Polarimetric_height_profile_1577

This dataset provides height profiles derived from UAVSAR (Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar; JPL) data acquired over Lope National Park and Rabi Forest in Gabon as part of the AfriSAR campaign in 2016. These data were produced using synthetic aperture radar tomography (TomoSAR), a method that reveals three-dimensional forest structures by extending the conventional two-dimensional imaging capabilities of radars using multiple images acquired from slightly different antenna positions. AfriSAR was an airborne campaign that collected radar, lidar, and field measurements of forests in Gabon, West Africa, as part of a collaborative mission between NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Gabonese Space Agency. These data will help prepare for and calibrate current and upcoming spaceborne missions that aim to gauge the role of forests in Earth's carbon cycle, such as the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI).

PolInSAR_Canopy_Height_1589

This dataset provides estimates of forest canopy height and canopy height uncertainty for study areas in the Pongara National Park and the Lope National Park, Gabon. Two canopy height products are included: 1) Canopy height was derived from multi-baseline Polarimetric Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (PolInSAR) data using an inversion of the random volume over ground (RVoG) model and Kapok, an open source Python library. 2) Canopy height was derived from a fusion of PolInSAR and Land, Vegetation, and Ice Sensor (LVIS) Lidar data. This dataset also includes various intermediate parameters of the PolInSAR data (including radar backscatter, coherence, and viewing and terrain geometry) which provide additional insight into the input data used to invert the RVoG model and accuracy of the canopy height estimates. The AfriSAR campaign was flown from 2016-02-27 to 2016-03-08. AfriSAR data were collected by NASA, in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Gabonese Space Agency.

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Update Frequency

Varies by dataset

License

Creative Commons BY 4.0

Documentation

https://nsidc.org/data/afolvis1a/versions/1

Managed By

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Contact

https://earthdata.nasa.gov/contact

How to Cite

NASA AfriSAR Project was accessed on DATE from https://registry.opendata.aws/nasa-afrisar.