NASA AfriSAR: Airborne LiDAR and Biomass Maps for Gabon Forests

Airborne LiDAR data and derived biomass maps collected over Gabon, Africa, as part of a NASA campaign in collaboration with the European Space Agency. The dataset includes geotagged images, return energy waveforms, surface elevation, and gridded aboveground biomass estimates for four forested sites. Data collection occurred from 2010 to 2016, with specific canopy structure flights in February and March 2016.

Use Cases

• Modeling aboveground biomass based on canopy height metrics derived from LiDAR.
• Analyzing vertical canopy structure profiles based on plant area index and cover fraction data.
• Creating digital elevation and surface models based on airborne lidar scanning altimeter data.
• Studying forest dynamics across different landcover types (forested, savannah, agricultural) in Gabon.

Strengths

• Includes multiple data products: geotagged images, waveforms, elevation, biomass maps, and canopy structure metrics.
• Aboveground biomass maps are provided at a high 0.25 hectare (50 m) resolution.
• Data collection involved collaboration between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA).
• Biomass estimates are derived from field measurements of tree diameter and height combined with LiDAR data.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and total dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

NASA campaign in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA) AfriSAR mission.

Collection Method

Airborne data collected by NASA's Digital Mapping Camera and Land, Vegetation, and Ice Sensor (LVIS) lidar altimeter.

Time Range

2010 to 2016, with canopy structure flights in February and March 2016.

Freshness

Data collection ended in 2016; last update date is unknown.

Geography

Gabon, Africa, specifically the Lope, Mabounie, Mondah Forest, and Rabi forest sites.