Brazilian Rainforest Area Canopy Change 2013-2014-2016
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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 in 2013 with an airplane collecting lidar data. As the plane flies overhead, the viewer finds themselves amongst the recently collected treetop canopy. The viewer then moves forward through the canopy eventually lifting up to get a birds eye view of the recently collected strip of data points (represented as leaf-like shapes). Areas of change from 2013 to 2014 are then highlighted and the data transitions to what the canopy looked like in 2014. Areas of change between 2014 to 2016 are then highlighted before the data transitions again to what the canopy looked like in 2016. Each successive change allows scientists to carefully monitor the turn over rate of foliage over this three year period.
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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Read moreThis animation shows an airplane collecting treetop data over a Brazilian rainforest. As the airplane continues to collect data, the viewer flies down to the rainforest canopy and flies through the virtual leaves, eventually emerging to see the airplane off in the distance still collecting new data. It should be noted that for the purposes of this animation, we chose to use leaf-like objects to represent each lidar data point in 3D space. However, lidar data does not specifically show individual leaves, but simply point heights reflected by the leaf canopy. However, the resolution of the lidar data is so good that it potentially can pick up leaves and other structures such as tree branches, and sometimes even flying birds, but has no easy way to differentiate between them. Therefore, since the location of this particular data was known to be a rainforest, and the majority of the data points would represent leaves, we chose leaf-like structures for this particular case. ||
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ID: 4652 Visualization
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Read moreThis data visualization starts in 2013 with an airplane collecting lidar data. As the plane flies overhead, the stationary viewer finds themselves amongst the recently collected treetop canopy. The viewer then drifts upward getting a better view of the beginning of the data swath. Areas that change between 2013 and 2014 are then highlighted and the data transitions fully to what the canopy looked like in 2014. Next, areas of change between 2014 to 2016 are highlighted and then fully transition to the canopy in 2016. Being able to see this level of change allows scientists to carefully monitor the foliage turnover rate in this remote part of the world. ||
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