Forest Biomass and Disturbance Maps for Six US Sites

NASA provides derived disturbance history and predicted annual forest biomass maps at 30-meter resolution for six Landsat scenes across the Conterminous United States from 1985 to 2014. The dataset covers sites in Colorado, Maine, Minnesota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina, representing a diversity of forest ecosystems and change processes. Biomass estimates were generated using Random Forest models that combine field plot measurements, airborne LiDAR validation maps, and Landsat time-series disturbance data.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the temporal pattern of forest disturbances using columns for year of detection, duration, and magnitude.
• Modeling carbon stock changes by correlating annual predicted biomass maps with disturbance history.
• Validating regional biomass models using the site-specific data derived from field plots and LiDAR.
• Studying the impact of different change processes (e.g., harvest, fire) on forest ecosystems across diverse US sites.

Strengths

• Provides a 30-year time series (1985-2014) for analyzing long-term forest dynamics.
• Integrates multiple data sources: Landsat time-series, field plots, and airborne LiDAR for model validation.
• Covers six distinct sites across the US, representing a wide range of forest types and disturbance processes.

Limitations

• The cause of each recorded disturbance (e.g., fire, harvest) is not identified.
• Conflicting metadata exists: one platform lists a last updated date of 2026-03-13, while another indicates the data period ends in 2014.
• Specific column names, row counts, and dataset size are not provided by any source.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Disturbance history derived from Landsat time-series; biomass estimated using Random Forest models combining field plots and airborne LiDAR data.

Time Range

1985-2014

Freshness

2026-03-13 03:09:19.331581

Geography

Six Landsat scenes across the Conterminous United States (Colorado, Maine, Minnesota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina)