US forest disturbance history from Landsat: North American Forest Dynamics (NAFD) - Phase III
This study continues an effort that exploits the combination of two key datasets, the Landsat historical record and plot records from the US Forest Service (USFS) Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program, for the purpose of developing a quantitative understanding of forest disturbance patterns in North America. The primary goals of this study are to: 1) Wall-to-Wall Annual Assessment of US Forest Disturbance History between 1985 and 2010. This approach not only reduces the errors encountered in early sampling efforts but also test automation of processing and analysis procedu
Comparison of Advanced Wide Field Sensor to Landsat for supplying general land cover land use change detection products needed for NASA LCLUC Program Science
With the Landsat data gap imminent, NASA’s LCLUC Program may require alternative data sources for producing regional to global-scale mapping products depicting land cover/land use distributions and terrestrial environmental changes. One such alternative is the Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) Advanced Wide Field Sensor (AWiFS) on current and future RESOURCESAT satellites. While AWiFS collects data similar to Landsat, system differences including reduced spatial resolution, reduced number of spectral bands, multiple cameras and larger off-axis viewing geometry, may impact LCLUC products.
Role of North America forest disturbance and regrowth In NACP: Integrated analyzes of Landsat and U.S. Forest Service FIA data - Phase II
Information on forest disturbance and regrowth is essential for understanding North American carbon dynamics, and the future of the current “carbon sink”. Moderate-resolution (Landsat-type) satellite data provide the only means of constructing spatially-explicit, temporally-detailed disturbance records. This proposal seeks to continue our team’s ongoing research to generate a comprehensive record of North American disturbance and regrowth from the Landsat archive.
Impacts and Implications of Increased Fire in Tundra Regions of North America
The overall goal of this project is to investigate the influence of climate change in the Arctic on fire occurrence and fire effects in the tundra ecoregions of North America (NA). In particular, if fire increases in landscapes where fire is neither currently nor historically of great importance, what impacts will this have on the ecosystem services? Specific objectives of the proposed project are driven by the following two hypotheses:
Synthesis of forest growth, response to wildfires and carbon storage for Russian forests
LCLUC Synthesis: Forested land cover and land use change in the Far East of the Northern Eurasia under the combined drivers of climate and socio-economic transformation.
This project represents a multi-institutional activity aimed at producing a coherent quantification and synthesis of forest cover change over the past 35 years for a large and important region: the Far East of Northern Eurasia.