Seminar: John Armston, "Looking Ahead to NASA's Earth Dynamics Geodetic Explorer (EDGE)"

Join us at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 16 in River Road Room 325 for the seminar "Looking Ahead to NASA's Earth Dynamics Geodetic Explorer (EDGE)" with Associate Professor John Armston.

The three-dimensional structure of terrestrial ecosystems is fundamental to understanding ecosystem processes and their responses to environmental change. However, measuring terrestrial ecosystem structure (TES) consistently at regional to global scales has long remained a major observational challenge.

The Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI), launched to the International Space Station in 2018 and led by UMD, has provided the first baseline mapping of vertical canopy structure and biomass across Earth’s tropical and temperate forests and is currently in its second mission extension. At the same time, a new generation of Earth observation missions is expanding these capabilities. The launches of the ESA BIOMASS and NASA/ISRO NISAR missions in 2025 introduced complementary radar measurements that, together with GEDI lidar observations, enable more integrated, high-resolution monitoring of forest structure, biomass, and disturbance dynamics.

Satellite laser altimetry remains the most direct and accurate technique for measuring 3D TES from space, yet monitoring how ecosystem structure is changing at the scales of the processes that drive it requires a step change in observational capability.

The NASA Earth Dynamics Geodetic Explorer (EDGE) will be the first swath-imaging lidar in space and is designed to measure two targeted observables identified in the 2017 Earth Science and Applications from Space Decadal Survey: TES and ice elevation (IE). Selected in February 2026 under NASA’s Earth System Explorer program, EDGE is expected to launch in 2030.

This talk will discuss EDGE’s measurement capabilities and their connection to the mission’s science objectives. These observations will provide new insights into the dynamics of Earth’s vegetation and ice-covered regions under rapid environmental change, with implications for the carbon cycle, biodiversity, and natural resource management.

Speaker Bio

John Armston is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geographical Sciences at the University of Maryland. Prior to joining the department in 2016, he was a Senior Scientist with the Queensland Government in Australia, and received his PhD from the University of Queensland in 2013. His research focuses on the integration of spaceborne lidar and synthetic aperture radar for quantifying aboveground carbon stocks and structural change in forest and woodland ecosystems. He currently serves as Co-Investigator on the NASA Global Ecosystem Dynamic Investigation (GEDI) and is Deputy Principal Investigator for the NASA Earth Dynamics Geodetic Explorer (EDGE) mission.

For the Zoom link, please visit the GEOG Department Calendar or contact Richard Owusu-Ansah, Ph.D student at @email.