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Vegetation Height and Structure - Derived from ALOS-1 PALSAR, Landsat and ICESat/GLAS, Australia Coverage 

Ver: 1.0
Status of Data: completed
Update Frequency: notPlanned
Security Classification: unclassified
Dataset Published: 2024-09-20
Dataset Last Modified: 2026-08-18
Metadata viewed 174296 times
Dataset accessed 1542 times
Metadata Created: 2023-02-27
Metadata Last Modified: 2026-08-19
How to cite this collection:
Scarth, P., Armston, J., Lucas, R. & Bunting, P. (2024). Vegetation Height and Structure - Derived from ALOS-1 PALSAR, Landsat and ICESat/GLAS, Australia Coverage. Version 1.0. Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network. Dataset. https://portal.tern.org.au/metadata/de1c2fef-b129-485e-9042-8b22ee616e66 
Data can be accessed from the following links:
HTTPVegetation height and structure files
WMSmodel:veg_height_structure_landsat_aus_cov
HTTPLandscape Data Visualiser
HTTPPoint-of-truth metadata URL
HTTPro-crate-metadata.json
Vertical plant profiles for the Australian continent were derived through integration of ICESat GLAS waveforms with ALOS PALSAR and Landsat data products. Co-registered Landsat Foliage Projected Cover (FPC) and ALOS PALSAR L-band HH and HV mosaics were segmented to generate objects with similar radar backscatter and cover characteristics. Within these, height, cover, age class and L-band backscatter characteristics were summarised based on the ICESat and Landsat time-series and ALOS PALSAR datasets. 
Credit
We at TERN acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Custodians throughout Australia, New Zealand and all nations. We honour their profound connections to land, water, biodiversity and culture and pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging. The authors thank the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) Kyoto and Carbon (K&C) Initiative for provision of ALOS PALSAR and ALOS-2 PALSAR-2 data. 
Purpose
The ability to map across large areas provides considerable benefits for quantifying carbon dynamics and informing on biodiversity metrics. 
Lineage
Data not provided. 
Method DocumentationData not provided.
Procedure StepsData not provided.
Spatial Description
Data not provided. 
Temporal Coverage
From 2009-01-01 to 2009-12-31 
Spatial Resolution

Data not provided.

Vertical Extent

Data not provided.

Data Quality Assessment Scope
The data quality assessment aims at evaluating the accuracy of the horizontal and vertical positions. 
Data Quality Report
Data not provided. 
Data Quality Assessment Outcome
Horizontal positional accuracy: The data described here has been registered to a USGS provided L1T ETM panchromatic baseline. It is not recommended that these data sets be used at scales more detailed than 1:100,000.
Vertical positional accuracy: The accuracy of the height estimates increases as the canopy density increases.
A full accuracy assessment is ongoing, but indicative plots of the height accuracy as compared to airborne lidar over TERN-AusCover supersites is illustrated in the figure not provided.
 
ANZSRC - FOR
Photogrammetry and remote sensing
Data Stream
Satellite Remote Sensing
GCMD Sciences
SEGMENTATION
VEGETATION
VEGETATION - FOREST COMPOSITION/VEGETATION STRUCTURE
VEGETATION - VEGETATION COVER
Horizontal Resolution
1 meter - < 30 meters
Parameters
crown cover
plant height
Platforms
ALOS
ICESat
LANDSAT-7
Project
TERN Landscapes
Temporal Resolution
Annual
Topic
environment
Author
Scarth, Peter
Co-Author
Armston, John
Lucas, Richard
Bunting, Peter
Contact Point
Data Enquiries, Earth Observation and Social Sciences (EOSS)
Joint Remote Sensing Research Program
Publisher
Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network
Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network
80 Meiers Road, Indooroopilly, Queensland, 4068, Australia.
Contact Us
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
The Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license allows others to copy, distribute, display, and create derivative works provided that they credit the original source and any other nominated parties. Details are provided at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 
Please cite this dataset as {Author} ({PublicationYear}). {Title}. {Version, as appropriate}. Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network. Dataset. {Identifier}. 
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Please advise any work or publications that use this data via the online form at https://www.tern.org.au/research-publications/#reporting