Brazilian Rainforest Logged Area Canopy Change 2013-2016
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- Visualizations by:
- Alex Kekesi
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- Scientific consulting by:
- Doug C. Morton
- View full credits
This data visualization starts with an airplane collecting lidar over a flat plane. As the data is collected a strip of the 2013 Brazilian rainforest canopy can be seen. Once the plane flies past, we spin the camera around to get a better view of the treetop canopy data. We then highlight areas of the canopy that will undergo significant change from 2013 to 2016. Finally, we allow those highlighted areas (ie, trees and tree branches) to fall the the ground, revealing the new 2016 forest canopy.
This visualization shows LIDAR (LIght Detection And Ranging) canopy data over the Brazilian Rainforest and how successive passes between 2013 to 2016 show changes to the treetop canopies. In this particular case, the area of interest appears to have been logged due to the very high number of downed trees. Together these data points provide scientists with information on foliage distribution and the elements of tree canopy. Similar LIDAR technologies are used to measure terrain topographies on the Moon and Mars.
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio
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Data visualizers
- Alex Kekesi (Global Science and Technology, Inc.) [Lead]
- Cindy Starr (Global Science and Technology, Inc.)
- Greg Shirah (NASA/GSFC)
- Horace Mitchell (NASA/GSFC)
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Scientists
- Doug C. Morton (NASA/GSFC) [Lead]
- Veronika Leitold (University of Maryland)
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Technical support
- Ian Jones (ADNET Systems, Inc.)
- Laurence Schuler (ADNET Systems, Inc.)
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Data provider
- Hyeungu Choi (GST)
Papers
This visualization is based on the following papers:- https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nph.15110
Series
This visualization can be found in the following series:Datasets used in this visualization
Airplane LiDAR (A.K.A. LiDAR 3D point cloud) (Collected with the G-LiHT sensor)
Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details, nor the data sets themselves on our site.
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