New map reveals world’s tropical carbon stocks
The new map was created using a range of ground- and space-based data,
including results from the Geoscience Laser Altimeter System lidar on
NASA’s ICESat satellite. They collated more than three million
measurements of tree height and then used corresponding ground data to
calculate the amount of above-ground biomass, and hence the amount of
carbon it contained.
These data were then extrapolated over the varying landscape to produce a seamless map, using NASA imagery from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer instrument on the Terra spacecraft, the QuikSCAT scatterometer satellite and the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission.
‘This is a benchmark map that can be used as a basis for comparison in the future when the forest cover and its carbon stock change,’ said Sassan Saatchi of NASA’s
Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, who led the research. ‘The map shows not only the amount of carbon stored in the forest, but also the accuracy of the estimate.’
The map reveals that during the early 2000s, forests in the 75 tropical countries studied contained about 250 billion tonnes of carbon. Almost half of the carbon is held in forests in Latin America; Brazil’s carbon stock alone – some 61 billion tonnes – is almost the same as the entire carbon stock of sub-Saharan Africa.
July 2011
These data were then extrapolated over the varying landscape to produce a seamless map, using NASA imagery from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer instrument on the Terra spacecraft, the QuikSCAT scatterometer satellite and the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission.
‘This is a benchmark map that can be used as a basis for comparison in the future when the forest cover and its carbon stock change,’ said Sassan Saatchi of NASA’s
Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, who led the research. ‘The map shows not only the amount of carbon stored in the forest, but also the accuracy of the estimate.’
The map reveals that during the early 2000s, forests in the 75 tropical countries studied contained about 250 billion tonnes of carbon. Almost half of the carbon is held in forests in Latin America; Brazil’s carbon stock alone – some 61 billion tonnes – is almost the same as the entire carbon stock of sub-Saharan Africa.
July 2011
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