Tropical forests from the air
Measuring carbon storage and forest structure from ground and remotely sensed data
Dr. Mat Disney and Dr. Simon Lewis have been successful in a bid to use the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Airborne Research and Survey Facility (ARSF) aircraft to gather data over Malaysia later in 2014.
The UCL Geography team will be deploying their new terrestrial laser scanning instrument to measure biomass and structure in tropical forest plots, while the ARSF aircraft will collect remote sensing data over the wider area.
Measuring the carbon stored in tropical forests is a difficult task, but is important for understanding how forests respond to changes in climate. Structure is important, since it helps indicate the type, health and growth stage of a forest.
The project will collect field and lidar data at permanent sample plots established by Simon. Combining these ground data with lidar and hyperspectral data from the NERC aircraft will provide a unique perspective and allow the team to address fundamental questions about the state of the tropical forest.