New measurements of forest canopy height and density from CryoSat2 and IceSat2 altimeters.

New measurements of forest canopy height and density from CryoSat2 and IceSat2 altimeters.

This project is to utilise a series of polar region-specific satellite altimeters to make new observations of forest canopy height and density. CryoSat2 and IceSat2 are operational ESA and NASA satellites that carry state-of-the-art earth observation altimeters. We look for a student to use UCL expertise in the remote sensing of snow and sea ice to make similar progress for forest-covered areas.

At present, the remote sensing of biomass over land cover is facing an issue of accuracy. While image-based ‘greeness’ data have been available globally for decades, these data are unable to distinguish at all between low-level savannahs and deep forest covers. As forests contain many times more biomass, this inability to distinguish presents a problem in the need to monitor global carbon stocks. Alternate methods exist, including the use of radar, but these methods rely on the crude fitting of total reflected radar power, to ground-based observational estimates of biomass. Our work with ice and snow allows us to go beyond simple metrics of radar power in order to pick out separate layers within the reflecting surface; the ground-based satellite footprint. We now wish to use our insights into the CryoSat2 radar and IceSat2 laser instruments to investigate the separate reflecting surfaces within a forest canopy.

This project is suitable for hybrid working.