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GEDI

Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation​

The Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) is a joint mission between NASA and the University of Maryland, with the instrument installed aboard the International Space Station. Data acquired using the instrument's three lasers are used to construct detailed three-dimensional (3D) maps of forest canopy height and the distribution of branches and leaves. By accurately measuring forests in 3D, GEDI data play an important role in understanding the amounts of biomass and carbon forests store and how much they lose when disturbed - vital information for understanding Earth's carbon cycle and how it is changing. GEDI data also can be used to study plant and animal habitats, biodiversity, and how these change over time (NASA).

Instrument: Lidar (three Nd:YAG lasers with 1064 nm)

Acquisition Date: 18.04.2019 - 09.06.2022 (scheduled de-orbiting in 03/2023; maybe re-attached end of 2024 for additional acquisitions until 2029; ongoing discussions: https://gedi.umd.edu/category/latest-news/)

Geographical Coverage: 51.6° North to 51.6° South

Geographical Availability: Germany

Spatial Resolution: ~30 m

Temporal Resolution: Variable based on the instrument's orbital cycle aboard the ISS

Absolute Horizontal and Vertical Accuracy: N/A

Height System: WGS84 (EPSG:4326)

terrabyte Catalog: Data Science Storage

Processing Levels:

  • Level-1A: Raw Waveforms (not publicly available)

  • Level-1B: Geolocated Waveforms

  • Level-2A: Ground Elevation, Canopy Top Height, Relative Height Metrics

  • Level-2B: Canopy Cover Fraction (CCF), CCF profile, Leaf Area Index (LAI), LAI profile

  • Level-3: Gridded Land Surface Metrics

  • Level-4A: Footprint Above Ground Biomass Density

  • Level-4: Gridded Biomass Product

User Guide: https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/documents/986/GEDI02_UserGuide_V2.pdf

Link: https://gedi.umd.edu/

Data Source: https://gedi.umd.edu/

Available data (original and pre-processed) on terrabyte:

GEDI data in processing levels 2A, 2B, and 4A are available in their original files or as pre-processed and merged annual products including quality and attribute filtering. The data are only available for Germany.

DescriptionSelected AttributesAttribute DescriptionAlgorithm Theoretical Basis Document (ATBD)Citation
Level-2APoint samples of relative height metrics (originally in 1% intervals; in 5% intervals would be sufficient)rh metrics; beam; channel; degrade_flag; delta_time; elev_lowestmode; elev_highestreturn; lat_lowestmode; lon_lowestmode; quality flag; sensitivity; digital_elevation_modelhttps://lpdaac.usgs.gov/documents/586/gedi_l2a_dictionary_P001_v1.htmlhttps://lpdaac.usgs.gov/documents/581/GEDI_WF_ATBD_v1.0.pdfGEDI L2A Elevation and Height Metrics Data Global Footprint Level - GEDI02_A; Dubayah R., Hofton, M., Blair, J. B., Armston, J., Tang, H., Luthcke, S. (2020). GEDI L2A Elevation and Height Metrics Data Global Footprint Level V001 [Data set]. NASA EOSDIS Land Processes DAAC. Accessed 2023-09-01 from https://doi.org/10.5067/GEDI/GEDI02_A.001
Level-2BPoint samples of top canopy height (100th percentile of relative height metrics from L2A), total canopy cover, Plant-Area-Index, Foliage-Height-Diversity-Indexpai; pai_z (in 5 % interval would be sufficient); pavd_z (in 5 % interval would be sufficient); fhd_normal; rh100; cover; cover_z (in 5 % interval would be sufficient); l2a_quality_flag; l2b_quality_flag; digital_elevation_model; sensitivity; elev_lowestmode; elev_highestreturn; lat_lowestmode; lon_lowestmode; degrade_flag; dz; beam; delta_time; channelhttps://lpdaac.usgs.gov/documents/587/gedi_l2b_dictionary_P001_v1.htmlhttps://lpdaac.usgs.gov/documents/588/GEDI_FCCVPM_ATBD_v1.0.pdfGEDI L2B Canopy Cover and Vertical Profile Metrics Data Global Footprint Level - GEDI02_B Dubayah R., Tang, H., Armston, J., Luthcke, S., Hofton, M., Blair, J. B. (2020). GEDI L2B Canopy Cover and Vertical Profile Metrics Data Global Footprint Level V001 [Data set]. NASA EOSDIS Land Processes DAAC. Accessed 2023-09-01 from https://doi.org/10.5067/GEDI/GEDI02_B.001
Level-4APoint samples of above-ground biomass density (AGBD)agbd; agbd_pi_lower; agbd_pi_upper; agbd_se; agbd_t; agbd_t_se; algorithm_run_flag; beam; degrade_flag; delta_time; channel; elev_lowestmode; l2_quality_flag; l4_quality_flag; lat_lowestmode; lon_lowestmodehttps://daac.ornl.gov/GEDI/guides/GEDI_L4A_AGB_Density.html#datasetoverviewhttps://eartharxiv.org/repository/view/3514/