G-LiHT Canopy Height Model: LiDAR-Derived Forest Structure at 1-Meter Resolution

Aerial campaigns from 2011 onward have collected LiDAR, hyperspectral, and thermal data over North American forests. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center provides this canopy height model product to map maximum canopy height and variability at a nominal 1-meter spatial resolution. The data supports the study of biodiversity and climate change impacts on terrestrial ecosystems.

Use Cases

• Modeling forest biomass and carbon storage based on LiDAR-derived canopy height.
• Analyzing biodiversity patterns based on canopy structure and variability.
• Monitoring changes in forest ecosystems over time based on repeated aerial campaigns.
• Calibrating and validating satellite-derived vegetation products based on high-resolution canopy data.

Strengths

• Provides high-resolution spatial data at a nominal 1-meter resolution.
• Data collection spans multiple ecoregions across the Conterminous United States, Alaska, Puerto Rico, and Mexico.
• Collection began in 2011 and is described as ongoing, suggesting temporal depth.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Data coverage is over locally-defined areas, not a continuous wall-to-wall map.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Goddard Space Flight Center

Collection Method

Collected via the portable airborne G-LiHT (Goddard's LiDAR, Hyperspectral, and Thermal Imager) system.

Time Range

2011 onward

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 02:43:04.722202; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Conterminous United States, Alaska, Puerto Rico, and Mexico