Effects of percent tree canopy density and DEM misregistration on SRTM/NED vegetation height estimates

Abstract

The U.S National Elevation Dataset and the NLCD 2001 landcover data were used to test the correlation between SRTM elevation values and the height of evergreen forest vegetation in the Klamath Mountains of California.Vegetation height estimates (SRTM-NED) are valid only for the two out of eight (N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, NW) geographic directions, due to NED and SRTM grid data misregistration. Penetration depths of SRTM radar were found to linearly correlate to tree percent canopy density. © 2009 by the authors; licensee Molecular Diversity Preservation International, Basel, Switzerland.