First forest canopy heights from NASA’s ICESat mission

Posted on June 29, 2019June 29, 2019 by Geoff Zeiss

First terrain surface and canopy heights from ICESat-2

Launched in September 2018, ICESat-2 (Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite-2) has just begun making its first data available. The data map global terrain surface and forest canopies. The Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS) instrument on-board ICESat-2 utilizes photon counting technology for the altimetry observations. Photon counting technology is relatively new to the vegetation mapping community. Data from ICESat-2 will provide global terrain elevation and canopy height estimates as well as showing potential for estimation of forest biomass.

The ATL08 land and vegetation product for the ICESat-2 Mission, Amy Neuenschwander, Katherine Pitts Remote Sensing of Environment, 221, February 2019, Pages 247-259 doi/10.1016/j.rse.2018.11.005

Declining insect abundance and diversity in Germany 2008-2017

Insect diversity and abundance data collected from 150 grassland and 140 forest sites in 3 regions of Germany reveals diversity in grasslands and forests decreased over time, indicating loss of species across sites and regions. In grasslands, insect abundance decreased by 78%.

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Himalayan glaciers lost 28% of ice in last 40 years

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Beaver expansion into Arctic tundra resulting from and accelerating permafrost thawing

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From Our Files

Greenland ice core records reveal periods of rapid warming across globe during last deglaciation

Air bubbles in Greenland ice cores are analyzed to compare changes in Greenland surface temperature and atmospheric methane concentration during a rapid warming event lasting 200 years during the last deglaciation. It is found that changes in Greenland surface temperature and atmospheric methane emissions occurred essentially synchronously indicating that this warming event included the tropics.

Location of core site on the Bermuda Rise

Changes in Atlantic current triggered abrupt Northern hemisphere warming events during last ice age

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Did global warming stop from 1998 to 2012 ?

In 2009 a widely used dataset indicated that the average temperature of the Earth’s surface may have stopped warming, or that it was warming at a lower rate than the long term average. A new analysis shows that the trend for 1998–2012 is indistinguishable from the best estimate of the long trend for 1951–2012.

Black carbon in the atmosphere infographic

Black carbon is the second most important anthropogenic contribution to climate warming

A reanalysis of the effect of black carbon emissions has found that it is second only to carbon dioxide emissions in its warming impact on the climate. Together carbon dioxide, black carbon, and methane emissions represent the anthropogenic sources with the largest impact on Earth’s climate.

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