Using NASA satellite data, scientists have produced a first-of-its kind map that details the height of the world s forests. Although there are other local- and regional-scale forest canopy maps, the new map is the first that spans the entire globe based on one uniform method. The work "” based on data collected by NASA s ICESat, Terra, and Aqua satellites "” should help scientists build an inventory of how much carbon the world s forests store and how fast that carbon cycles through ecosystems and back into the atmosphere. Michael Lefsky of the Colorado State University described his results in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. Lefsky used data from a laser technology called LIDAR that s capable of capturing vertical slices of surface features. It measures forest canopy height by shooting pulses of light at the surface and observing how much longer it takes for light to bounce back from the ground surface than from the top of the canopy. Since LIDAR can penetrate the top layer of forest canopy, it provides a fully-textured snapshot of the vertical structure of a forest "” something that no other scientific instrument can offer. "LIDAR is unparalleled for this type of measurement," Lefsky said, noting it would have taken weeks or more to collect the same amount of data in the field by counting and measuring tree trunks that LIDAR can capture in seconds. He based his map on data from more than 250 million laser pulses collected during a seven year period. That may sound like an enormous amount of data, but each pulse returns information about just a tiny portion of the surface. Overall, the LIDAR offered direct measurements of 2.4 percent of the Earth s forested surfaces. Google Earth version of the global map (The map of the forest height is more detailed for the United States) can be download : http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=44717 Source: NASA First-of-its-Kind Map Depicts Global Forest Heights
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