Gabon Forest Height Profiles from UAVSAR Tomography

Gabon's Lope National Park and Rabi Forest are mapped in this dataset of three-dimensional forest height profiles. Data was acquired in 2016 during the collaborative AfriSAR airborne campaign involving NASA, ESA, and the Gabonese Space Agency. The profiles are derived from UAVSAR radar data using synthetic aperture radar tomography (TomoSAR) to reveal vertical structure.

Use Cases

• Calibrating spaceborne lidar and radar missions for biomass estimation using vertical canopy profiles.
• Modeling forest carbon storage and cycling by analyzing three-dimensional structure over specific regions.
• Studying canopy architecture and terrain elevation through TomoSAR-derived height and backscatter data.
• Validating other remote sensing products (e.g., digital elevation models) with airborne campaign data.

Strengths

• Data originates from a major collaborative campaign (AfriSAR) involving NASA, ESA, and the Gabonese Space Agency.
• Uses advanced synthetic aperture radar tomography (TomoSAR) to extract 3D forest structure from 2D radar imagery.
• Supports calibration for current and upcoming spaceborne missions like GEDI, indicating scientific relevance.

Limitations

• Key technical details are missing: specific column names, row counts, and dataset size are unknown across all sources.
• Sources conflict on the last updated date, reporting both 2016-02-28 and 2026-03-13.

Provenance

Source

NASA JPL UAVSAR data from the AfriSAR airborne campaign.

Collection Method

Synthetic aperture radar tomography (TomoSAR) applied to multi-baseline polarimetric UAVSAR data.

Time Range

2016

Freshness

2026-03-13 05:55:42.256827

Geography

Lope National Park and Rabi Forest, Gabon, West Africa.