Interest of a full-waveform flown UV lidar to derive forest vertical structures and aboveground carbon

Abstract

Amongst all the methodologies readily available to estimate forest canopy and aboveground carbon (AGC), in-situ plot surveys and airborne laser scanning systems appear to be powerful assets. However, they are limited to relatively local scales. In this work, we have developed a full-waveform UV lidar, named ULICE (Ultraviolet LIdar for Canopy Experiment), as an airborne demonstrator for future space missions, with an eventual aim to retrieve forest properties at the global scale. The advantage of using the UV wavelength for a demonstrator is its low multiple scattering in the canopy. Based on realistic airborne lidar data from the well-documented Fontainebleau forest site (south-east of Paris, France), which is representative of managed deciduous forests in temperate climate zones, we estimate the uncertainties in the retrieval of forest vertical structures and AGC. A complete uncertainty study using Monte Carlo approaches is performed for both the lidar-derived tree top height (TTH) and AGC. Our results show a maximum error of 1.2 m (16 tC ha-1) for the TTH (AGC) assessment. Furthermore, the study of leaf effect on AGC estimate for mid-latitude deciduous forests highlights the possibility for using calibration obtained during only one season to retrieve the AGC during the other, by applying winter and summer airborne measurements. © 2014 by the authors.