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Assessment of terrain elevation estimates from ICESat-2 and GEDI spaceborne LiDAR missions across different land cover and forest types

Urbazaev, Mikhail and Hess, Laura and Hancock, Steven and Sato, Luciane Yumie and Ometto, JP and Thiel, Christian and Dubois, Clémence and Heckel, Kai and Urban, Marcel and Adam, Markus and Schmullius, Christiane (2022) Assessment of terrain elevation estimates from ICESat-2 and GEDI spaceborne LiDAR missions across different land cover and forest types. Science of Remote Sensing. Elsevier. doi: 10.1016/j.srs.2022.100067. ISSN 2666-0172.

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Abstract

Accurate measurements of terrain elevation are crucial for many ecological applications. In this study, we sought to assess new global three-dimensional Earth observation data acquired by the spaceborne Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) missions Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) and Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI). For this, we examined the “ATLAS/ICESat-2 L3A Land and Vegetation Height”, version 5 (20 × 14 m and 100 × 14 m segments) and the “GEDI Level 2A Footprint Elevation and Height Metrics”, version 2 (25 m circle). We conducted our analysis across four land cover classes (bare soil, herbaceous, forest, savanna), and six forest types (temperate broad-leaved, temperate needle-leaved, temperate mixed, tropical upland, tropical floodplain, and tropical secondary forest). For assessment of terrain elevation estimates from spaceborne LiDAR data we used high resolution airborne data. Our results indicate that both LiDAR missions provide accurate terrain elevation estimates across different land cover classes and forest types with mean error less than 1 m, except in tropical forests. However, using a GEDI algorithm with a lower signal end threshold (e.g., algorithm 5) can improve the accuracy of terrain elevation estimates for tropical upland forests. Specific environmental parameters (terrain slope, canopy height and canopy cover) and sensor parameters (GEDI degrade flags, terrain estimation algorithm; ICESat-2 number of terrain photons, terrain uncertainty) can be applied to improve the accuracy of ICESat-2 and GEDI-based terrain estimates. Although the goodness-of-fit statistics from the two spaceborne LiDARs are not directly comparable since they possess different footprint sizes (100 × 14 m segment or 20 × 14 m segment vs. 25 m circle), we observed similar trends on the impact of terrain slope, canopy cover and canopy height for both sensors. Terrain slope strongly impacts the accuracy of both ICESat-2 and GEDI terrain elevation estimates for both forested and non-forested areas. In the case of GEDI the impact of slope is, however, partly caused by horizontal geolocation error. Moreover, dense canopies (i.e., canopy cover higher than 90%) affect the accuracy of spaceborne LiDAR terrain estimates, while canopy height does not, when considering samples over flat terrains. Our analysis of the accuracy and precision of current versions of spaceborne LiDAR products for different vegetation types and environmental conditions provides insights on parameter selection and estimated uncertainty to inform users of these key global datasets.

Item URL in elib:https://elib.dlr.de/189197/
Document Type:Article
Title:Assessment of terrain elevation estimates from ICESat-2 and GEDI spaceborne LiDAR missions across different land cover and forest types
Authors:
AuthorsInstitution or Email of AuthorsAuthor's ORCID iDORCID Put Code
Urbazaev, MikhailFriedrich-Schiller-Universität Jenahttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-0327-6278UNSPECIFIED
Hess, LauraUniversity of Califronia Santa BarbaraUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Hancock, StevenSchool of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UKUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Sato, Luciane YumieNational Institute for Space Research (INPE), Sao ˜ Jos´e dos Campos, BrazilUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Ometto, JPInstituto Nacional de Pesquisas EspaciaisUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Thiel, ChristianUNSPECIFIEDhttps://orcid.org/0000-0001-5144-8145UNSPECIFIED
Dubois, ClémenceUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Heckel, KaiFriedrich-Schiller-University JenaUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Urban, MarcelUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Adam, MarkusUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Schmullius, ChristianeDepartment of Earth Observation, Institute of Geography, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, GermanyUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Date:25 September 2022
Journal or Publication Title:Science of Remote Sensing
Refereed publication:Yes
Open Access:Yes
Gold Open Access:Yes
In SCOPUS:Yes
In ISI Web of Science:Yes
DOI:10.1016/j.srs.2022.100067
Publisher:Elsevier
ISSN:2666-0172
Status:Published
Keywords:Terrain elevation Accuracy assessment GEDI ICESat-2
HGF - Research field:Aeronautics, Space and Transport
HGF - Program:Space
HGF - Program Themes:Space Exploration
DLR - Research area:Raumfahrt
DLR - Program:R EW - Space Exploration
DLR - Research theme (Project):R - QS-Project_04 Big-Data-Plattform
Location: Jena
Institutes and Institutions:Institute of Data Science > Data Acquisition and Mobilisation
Deposited By: Thiel, Christian
Deposited On:02 Nov 2022 11:22
Last Modified:05 Feb 2024 12:47

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  • Assessment of terrain elevation estimates from ICESat-2 and GEDI spaceborne LiDAR missions across different land cover and forest types. (deposited 02 Nov 2022 11:22) [Currently Displayed]

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