Global Forest Carbon Stocks and Fluxes from NASA Lidar Missions

Forest aboveground carbon stocks and potential fluxes are estimated globally at a 0.01-degree resolution. The dataset was produced by NASA using 3.77 billion lidar samples from the GEDI and ICESat-2 missions to initialize the Ecosystem Demography model (ED v3.0). It represents forest conditions and associated carbon dynamics for the period 2018-2021.

Use Cases

• Modeling global carbon fluxes by linking gridded canopy height histograms to ecosystem succession simulations.
• Assessing forest carbon sequestration potential using estimates of aboveground carbon stocks.
• Validating terrestrial biosphere models with remote sensing-derived constraints on canopy height and carbon dynamics.
• Analyzing spatial patterns of forest biomass for climate change mitigation planning.

Strengths

• Derived from an exceptionally large observational foundation of 3.77 billion lidar samples.
• Provides high-resolution global coverage at a 0.01-degree grid.
• Integrates novel remote sensing data from two NASA missions (GEDI and ICESat-2) with a process-based ecosystem model (ED v3.0).

Limitations

• Specific column names and dataset size are not provided on any platform.
• Conflicting last updated dates exist between sources (2026-03-13 on Data.gov vs. 2021-10-01 on NASA EarthData).
• The license is ambiguously listed as 'other-license-specified' without explicit terms.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Generated by initializing the global Ecosystem Demography model (ED v3.0) with remote sensing observations of tree canopy height from GEDI and ICESat-2 lidar missions.

Time Range

2018-2021

Freshness

2026-03-13 02:13:52.270683

Geography

Global