Assessing Eastern North America Forest Disturbance and Regrowth: Potential from Passive Optical Remote Sensing Evaluated in the US Mid-Atlantic Region

Samuel N. Goward, Jeffrey Masek (GSFC), Warren Cohen (USFS Corvallis)

 

This project is developing advanced procedures to monitor forest-cover change, disturbance, and recovery. Funded by NASA’s Ecosystems Program, this project is evaluating potential approaches to forest monitoring using passive optical satellite remote sensing observations (e.g. Landsat, MODIS and IKONOS observations).  The study is a prototype effort that supports the goals of the US interagency North American Carbon Program (NACP).  Forest-cover change is defined as permanent conversion in the type or extent of forest, while disturbance is defined as transient reduction in forest biomass followed by a recovery period.  Either process may be of natural or human origin. 

The intended outcome of this research is a validated set of techniques for using passive optical remote sensing to provide measurements of forest dynamics needed to accomplish the NACP goals.  The project will provide the first paired comparison of multi-temporal satellite measurements with US Department of Agriculture Forest Service forest inventory and analysis (FIA) field observations.  The study is directed toward finding means to combine the USDA FS FIA measurements with remotely sensed data to assess forest dynamics, while not breaching the confidentiality of the FIA plot measurements.  These efforts began in March 2003 with the intent of assisting the implementation of the NACP which is anticipated to take place in 2005.

Example publication: Masek, J., Williams, D.L., Goward, S.N., and Sun, Q. (2004) “The Spectral evolution of re-growing, Mid-Latitude forests.” Remote Sensing of Environment.