Global Forest Canopy Height Estimates from ICESat LiDAR

October 2004 to March 2008 data provides global estimates of forest canopy height derived from the GLAS LiDAR instrument aboard NASA's ICESat satellite. The dataset contains canopy height metrics for 18,578 statistically selected forested sites worldwide, processed from over 12 million GLAS waveform observations. It is produced by the ORNL_CLOUD organization and includes country-level summaries.

Use Cases

• Calibrating and validating satellite-derived aboveground biomass estimates using the provided maximum canopy height and Lorey's height metrics.
• Analyzing national and global forest structure trends by utilizing the country-level average canopy height and variance estimates.
• Modeling forest carbon stocks and ecosystem services based on spatially distributed canopy height point data.
• Studying the relationship between forest canopy architecture and LiDAR waveform characteristics from the underlying GLAS data.

Strengths

• Derived from a substantial global sample of over 12 million LiDAR waveform observations (GLAS shots).
• Provides statistically selected, globally distributed point data for 18,578 forested sites.
• Includes country-level aggregated statistics (average height, variance, shot count) for broader analysis.
• Data collection spans a defined multi-year period from October 2004 to March 2008.

Limitations

• Column names and the complete attribute schema are not provided in the available metadata.
• There is a conflict in the 'last updated' date between sources (2004-11-08 vs. 2026-03 13), suggesting possible metadata errors.

Provenance

Source

NASA ICESat satellite Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) LiDAR instrument.

Collection Method

Processing of global GLAS waveform data to obtain canopy height estimates for selected forest sites.

Time Range

2004-10 to 2008-03

Freshness

2026-03-13 03:14:34.516967

Geography

Global