Module 1 Overview

An example of GEDI Level 1B data plotted in Bankhead National Forest in Alabama. This is an area of the forest where some of the trees appear brown, indicating damage and possible mortality of trees likely due to the presence of Southern Pine Beetle (Dendroctonus frontalis), a common tree-boring pest in this region. In the righthand graph, the bottom peak in L1B data (circled in brown) represents laser returns that reached the ground, since the ground is interpreted to be at the elevation of the lowest peak. The highest energy returns are mostly concentrated in a second peak (circled in green), higher in the elevation profile than the ground peak, possibly indicating the presence of some healthy foliage and standing trees in the shot despite widespread beetle infestation in the surrounding area.

Introduction to GEDI Full Waveform Lidar for Terrestrial Applications

Fundamental principles of active and passive sensors are compared to highlight how lidar measures biophysical parameters of vegetation structure and height. By following the exercises of generating relative height metrics, participants will be able to understand the limitations and advantages of such datasets, and access and prepare the data for interpretation between land cover types.

The Target Audience

Advanced undergraduate students, graduate students and remote sensing practitioners interested in ecological applications of full waveform lidar.

Learning Objectives

1. Understand essential physical principles of lidar remote sensing, including the uses and limitations of lidar technology for terrestrial applications
   1. Describe the essential physical principles of lidar remote sensing
   2. List different types of lidar sensors with respect to the platform and the type of sensor
   3. Exemplify uses and limitations of full waveform lidar technology for terrestrial applications
2. Access public NASA repositories to retrieve full waveform lidar observations and visualize vegetation structure.

Partners, Contributors, and Acknowledgements

• Naiara Pinto, Ph.D., NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
• Savannah Cooley, Ph.D., NASA Ames Research Center, Bay Area Environmental Research Institute, savannah.cooley@nasa.gov

Module Topics Overview

1. Fundamentals of Lidar Remote Sensing
2. Full waveform Lidar from the GEDI Mission
3. Practical Applications with GEDI Full Waveform Data

Pre-Requisites

• EarthData Access Login
• Google Drive account
• Google Colab
• Github account and/or access
• Introductory course about Lidar with an emphasis on terrestrial ecology applications, such as ARSET’s course on solar induced fluorescence and lidar for vegetation assessment.

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Table of contents

• Fundamentals of Lidar and GEDI Full Waveform Lidar
• Practical Applications of GEDI Full Waveform Data
• Summary