Mapping Forests Through Time
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- Visualizations by:
- Greg Shirah
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- Written by:
- Caitlin Trenkle
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- Scientific consulting by:
- Chengquan Huang,
- Feng Zhao, and
- Jeffrey Masek
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- Produced by:
- Joy Ng and
- Matthew Radcliff
- View full credits
Trees are one of the world’s best absorbers of atmospheric carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change. As climate change becomes an increasingly urgent matter, scientists seek to understand the effect of forest changes on the increase of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. Researchers have used the U.S. Geological Survey and NASA's Landsat data to create 25 years’ worth of annual maps of the lower-48 United States. These maps illustrate disturbances in the country’s forests over time. The maps use dark green to represent undisturbed forest, bright yellow to represent forest loss or removal, and grey or brown to represent areas with few to no trees. Scientists have linked large disturbances in forestry to coinciding natural events and human activities such as deforestation and mining. Logging and hurricanes have had a large impact on the Southeast, while fires and insect invasions have damaged forests in the West. Watch the video to learn more.
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio
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Animator
- Greg Shirah (NASA/GSFC) [Lead]
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Writer
- Caitlin Trenkle (Experiential Learning Program, UMD) [Lead]
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Scientists
- Chengquan Huang (University of Maryland) [Lead]
- Feng Zhao (University of Maryland) [Lead]
- Jeffrey Masek (NASA/GSFC) [Lead]
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Producers
- Joy Ng (KBRwyle) [Lead]
- Matthew Radcliff (KBRwyle) [Lead]
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