1. REGIONAL TO GLOBAL SCALE MAPPING OF FOREST HEIGHT, BIOMASS AND CARBON FROM MULTI-SOURCE SATELLITE AND FIELD DATA Josef Kellndorfer Alessandro Baccini, Oliver Cartus, Scott Goetz, Nadine Laporte, Richard Houghton, Wayne Walker The Woods Hole Research Center

2. Outline The National Biomass and Carbon Dataset 2000 Fusion of SRTM InSAR, optical EO products and optical data Biomass mapping with ALOS PALSAR dual-polarization data Another kind of SAR/optical data synergy

4. Biomass and

5. Carbon Estimates

6. Conterminous U.S.

7. First attempt at 30 m resolution everJ.Kellndorfer, National Biomass and Carbon Dataset 2000

8. The Opportunity … A “millennium” opportunity exists to combine SRTM and several national data sets: National Land Cover Database 2001 Provides Landcover, Treecover, Imperviousness MRLC Landsat ETM+ Datasets 1999-2002 National Elevation Dataset Compiled from Topographic Survey data Cohesive processing for the first time around 2000 USDA Forest Inventory and Analysis Data Ca. 300,000 surveyed plots with forest attributes (including height, biomass)

9. Shuttle Radar Topography Mission: Global Coverage in 11 Days Source: USGS

10. SRTM Vegetation Response Mean Canopy Height Mean Scattering Phase Center Height SRTM Resolution Cell Mean Canopy Height Mean Radar Measured Height Ground Elevation Surface

11. SRTM Vegetation Signal Extraction Per pixel measurements have typical SAR noise characteristics -> Need to develop noise reduction approach which optimizes the retrieval of vegetation height

12. Improving Radar Radiometry Example: Michigan Woodlots C-band Difference Image C-band Difference Image Before Object-based Averaging After Object-based Averaging X-band Difference Image X-band Difference Image

13. Biomass Predictor Layers Height Predictor Layers Statistical Fusion of Field and Satellite Data Validation Predicted Biomass Output Predicted Height Modeling: RandomForest For 66 ecoregions SAR Backscatter InSAR Height Optical Reflectance Input Elevation Response Variables Reference Data: US Forest Inventory and Analysis Plot Network 300,000 Plots at Full Implementation Slope Reference Data DBH/Height -> Biomass Landsat - National Land Cover Data Base 2001

14. NBCD 2000 - Basal-Area Weighted Height

15. 11 PUBLIC DATA RELEASED April 20th AT http://whrc.org/nbcd

16. Model Variable Importance Analysis with randomForest SRTM phase scattering center and derived height

17. NBCD 2000 Height and Biomass Estimates Compared with USDA Forest Inventory (FIA) at Plot Level via Bootstrap Validation NBCD Predicted Height vs. FIA Height NBCD Predicted ALD Biomass vs. FIA ALD Biomass

18. Multi-Scale NBCD Biomass Estimates Comparison with FIAEstimates Hexagon Scale [ Hex Size = ~650 km2 = ~ 160,000 ac, i.e. In ideal case: ~ 25 FIA plots ] N = 8139 NBCD 19 Mg/ha / 0.92 (RMSD/Corr.Coef.) County Scale N = 2635 NBCD 14 Mg/ha / 0.95 NBCD

19. NBCD 2000 Carbon Stock estimates Compared with USDA Forest Inventory (FIA) State Level Estimates

20. Update of NBCD with ALOS PALSAR? NBCD represents a unique product because several 30 m remote sensing products were available for the same time frame

21. USDA project: Towards Spatially Explicit Quantification of Carbon Flux (2000-2007) in Northeastern U.S. Forests Linking Remote Sensing with Forest Inventory DataInvestigators: Kellndorfer, J., Cartus, O., Houghton, R. A., Walker, W. S.Collaboration: Maurizio Santoro, GAMMA RS 655 PALSAR FBD images for 2007/08 Multi-temporal coverage: 1-5

23. Multi-temporal combination of single image biomass estimatesSimilar to what was developed for ENVISAT ASAR C-band data (Santoro et al. 2011, RSE) and for ERS-1/2 tandem coherence (Cartus et al., 2011, RSE)

24. ALOS biomass map for 2007 Compared to NBCD

25. When aggregating to county scale … Vs. FIA county carbon statistics Vs. NBCD 2000

26. Conclusions:Two different types of SAR/InSAR/optical data synergy have beeninvestigated Availability of very different data types was the key for the successful mapping of forest biophysical parameters over large areas NBCD represents a unique product At scales of >500 m, however, ALOS PALSAR Dual polarization appeared to allow reliable biomass estimates up to ~200 t/ha