NASA Veg3-D & Biomass Workshop, March 2008, Charlottesville, VA

The workshop will particularly focus on the NRC Decadal Survey mission recommendations to map vegetation structure and biomass, examine the outcomes of two recent NASA workshops, the ICESAT2 (GLAS) and DESDynI (L-band polarimetry & InSAR and multi-beam Lidar), and assess to what extent these missions could satisfy the global carbon cycle and ecosystem measurements identified so far. The workshop will also consider the BIOMASS (P-band SAR) mission concept currently being recommended as one of ESA's Earth Explorer missions respectively. The specific goals of the workshop are:

Engagement of a broad community of scientists, remote sensing specialists, and institutions interested in terrestrial carbon cycle, forest biomass and carbon accounting and Veg3D structure in support of DESDynl and BIOMASS
Definition of measurement requirements, scientific products and applications for reducing uncertainties about global carbon balance, national and global carbon accounting, process models and predictions, and biodiversity and habitat assessment.
Identification and assessments of the science derived from radar (L-band and P-bnd polarimetry/InSAR and multi-beam lidar sensors recommended for DESDynl and BIOMASS concepts and their complementary measurements Identification of areas of research and further development/ investigation
Planning Publication of review articles, recent case studies, and algorithms to document the state-of-the-art of active remote sensing of vegetation structure and biomass and to promote the mission concepts Planning for community "education" and outreach towards the implementation of the mission concepts

The main objective of the workshop was to bring together scientists who have conducted research on structure and carbon dynamics, and remote sensing specialists to help further define scientific rationale, measurement and R&A requirements for satellite missions to map global forest 3D structure and biomass. This workshop was one in an ongoing series of carbon cycle and ecosystem workshops to clarify key scientific goals of such observations, identify and prioritize measurements and products, examine existing results and algorithms, and recommend tradeoff studies, synergistic and data fusion methods by which measurement approaches can be evaluated using a common set of requirements. Over 120 scientists were in attendance.

Presentations included:

Forest Height, Cover, and Biomass Mapping Using Passive Multiangle Data
Mark Chopping, John V. Martonchik, Michael Bull, Gretchen G. Moisen, Ron Tymcio, Barry (Ty) Wilson, Albert Rango, and Andrea Laliberte

Multibeam lidar measurements for DESDynl
Lefsky, M., Dubayah, R., Blair, J.B., Knox, R., Nelson, R., & Sun, G.

Global lmeasurements of vegetation structure: A climate and carbon cycle science perspective
Wofsy, S.C., Moorcroft, P.R., Palace, M., & Saleska, S.

The Phased Array L-Band SAR (PALSAR) Aboard the Japanese Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS)
Kellndorfer, J., Walker, W. Shimada, M. & Rosenqvist, A.