Harvard Forest Research

Vegetation Structure Ground Validation work related to NASA's DESDynI mission

Principal Investigator: Paul Siqueira
University of Massachusetts at Amherst: May 01 2009 - Apr 30 2012:

Abstract:
The purpose of this work is to collect ground validation data that will be used in conjunction with remote sensing observations made by NASA's LVIS (laser vegetation imaging sensor) and UAVSAR, for the purpose of remotely measuring vegetation structure and biomass from space, as a prelude to the DESDynI mission.
The Harvard Forest is an area of particular interest because of its previous history for measurements of biomass and being imaged by LVIS, as well as the considerable amount of spaceborne SAR data that has been collected for the region.
The long term aspects of the work will be to create relationships between the remotely sensed variables and the physical characteristics pertaining to vegetation structure and biomass measured on the ground. These relationships will be expanded to the larger region and ultimately will inform the configuration of the DESDynI mission, as it would apply to global measurements of biomass and vegetation structure.: