New Opportunities for Forest Remote Sensing Through Ultra-High-Density Drone Lidar

James R. Kellner, John Armston, Markus Birrer, K. C. Cushman, Laura Duncanson, Christoph Eck, Christoph Falleger, Benedikt Imbach, Kamil Král, Martin Krůček, Jan Trochta, Tomáš Vrška, Carlo Zgraggen

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

106 Scopus citations

Abstract

Current and planned space missions will produce aboveground biomass density data products at varying spatial resolution. Calibration and validation of these data products is critically dependent on the existence of field estimates of aboveground biomass and coincident remote sensing data from airborne or terrestrial lidar. There are few places that meet these requirements, and they are mostly in the northern hemisphere and temperate zone. Here we summarize the potential for low-altitude drones to produce new observations in support of mission science. We describe technical requirements for producing high-quality measurements from autonomous platforms and highlight differences among commercially available laser scanners and drone aircraft. We then describe a case study using a heavy-lift autonomous helicopter in a temperate mountain forest in the southern Czech Republic in support of calibration and validation activities for the NASA Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation. Low-altitude flight using drones enables the collection of ultra-high-density point clouds using wider laser scan angles than have been possible from traditional airborne platforms. These measurements can be precise and accurate and can achieve measurement densities of thousands of points · m−2. Analysis of surface elevation measurements on a heterogeneous target observed 51 days apart indicates that the realized range accuracy is 2.4 cm. The single-date precision is 2.1–4.5 cm. These estimates are net of all processing artifacts and geolocation errors under fully autonomous flight. The 3D model produced by these data can clearly resolve branch and stem structure that is comparable to terrestrial laser scans and can be acquired rapidly over large landscapes at a fraction of the cost of traditional airborne laser scanning.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)959-977
Number of pages19
JournalSurveys in Geophysics
Volume40
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 15 2019
Externally publishedYes

Funding

This research was funded by Brown University and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration of the United States of America.

FundersFunder number
Brown University

    Keywords

    • Drone
    • Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI)
    • Lidar
    • Remote sensing
    • UAV

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