Forest canopy height from the Multiangle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) assessed with high resolution discrete return lidar

In most cases authors are permitted to post their version of the article (e.g. in Word or Tex form) to their personal website or institutional repository. Authors requiring further information regarding Elsevier's archiving and manuscript policies are encouraged to visit: a b s t r a c t a r t i c l e i n f o In this study retrievals of forest canopy height were obtained through adjustment of a simple geometric-optical (GO) model against red band surface bidirectional reflectance estimates from NASA's Multiangle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR), mapped to a 250 m grid. The soil-understory background contribution was partly isolated prior to inversion using regression relationships with the isotropic, geometric, and volume scattering kernel weights of a Li-Ross kernel-driven bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) model. The height retrievals were assessed using discrete return lidar data acquired over sites in Colorado as part of the Cold Land Processes Experiment (CLPX) and used with fractional crown cover retrievals to obtain aboveground woody biomass estimates. For all model runs with reasonable backgrounds and initial b/r (vertical to horizontal crown radii) values b2.0, root mean square error (RMSE) distributions were centered between 2.5 and 3.7 m while R 2 distributions were centered between 0.4 and 0.7. The MISR/ GO aboveground biomass estimates predicted via regression on fractional cover and mean canopy height for the CLPX sites showed good agreement with U.S. Forest Service Interior West map data (adjusted R 2 = 0.84). The implication is that multiangle sensors such as MISR can provide spatially contiguous retrievals of forest canopy height, cover, and aboveground woody biomass that are potentially useful in mapping distributions of aboveground carbon stocks, tracking disturbance, and in initializing, constraining, and validating ecosystem models. This is important because the MISR record is spatially comprehensive and extends back to the year 2000 and the launch of the NASA Earth Observing System (EOS) Terra satellite; it might thus provide a ~ 10-year baseline record that would enhance exploitation of data from the NASA Deformation, Ecosystem Structure and Dynamics of Ice (DESDynI) mission, as well as furthering realization of synergies with active instruments. Mapped estimates of forest canopy height, fractional cover, and aboveground woody biomass are relevant to important science questions regarding carbon storage and cycling, susceptibility to wildfire, gaseous and particulate emissions from wildfire, changes in structure from disturbance (pathogens, insect outbreaks, wildfire, storms, forest management practices such as thinning and …