Earth ID: 5031

Continental scale carbon stocks of individual trees in African drylands

Visualizations by Kel Elkins Released on March 1, 2023

Using commercial, high-resolution satellite images and artificial intelligence, a team of NASA-funded scientists mapped almost 10 billion individual trees in Africa’s drylands in order to assess the amount of carbon stored outside of major forests. The result is the first comprehensive estimate of carbon density in the Saharan, Sahel, and Sudanian zones of Africa.

Complete transcript available.

The visualization begins with a view of the study region in northern Africa with climate zones indicated. The camera zooms into a region of satellite imagery and individual trees are identified, along with the amount of carbon stored in each tree. The camera then pulls out to reveal total tree carbon in the study region.

Still image - view of the study region in northern Africa with climate zones indicated.

hyper-arid (0-150 mm/year)

arid (150-300 mm/year)

semi-arid (300-600 mm/year)

sub-humid (600-1000 mm/year)

Still image - Individual trees identified in satellite imagery, color mapped by the amount of carbon they contain

Color bar legend for carbon per tree, ranging from 10 kg carbon per tree (dark purple) to 1000 kg carbon per tree (bright yellow)

Visualization Credits

Kel Elkins (USRA): Lead Visualizer
Greg Shirah (NASA/GSFC): Visualizer
Kathleen Gaeta (AIMM): Lead Producer
Compton Tucker (NASA/GSFC): Scientist
Jesse R. Meyer (SSAI): Scientist
Martin Brandt (University of Copenhagen): Scientist
Laurence Schuler (ADNET): Technical Support
Ian Jones (ADNET): Technical Support

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/5031

Data Used:

Terra and Aqua/MODIS/Blue Marble: Next Generation also referred to as: BMNG

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/BlueMarble/

Credit:
The Blue Marble data is courtesy of Reto Stockli (NASA/GSFC).

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Observed Data - DigitalGlobe

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Landsat-8/OLI/TIRS/Band Combination 4-3-2

Observed Data - USGS

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Rasterized Tree Crowns (generated via ML from DigitalGlobe mosaics)

Analysis - NASA

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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.

This item is part of this series:
Narrated Movies

Keywords:
DLESE >> Biology
SVS >> Biomass
DLESE >> Ecology
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Biosphere >> Ecological Dynamics >> Biomass
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Biosphere >> Vegetation >> Crown
NASA Science >> Earth

GCMD keywords can be found on the Internet with the following citation: Olsen, L.M., G. Major, K. Shein, J. Scialdone, S. Ritz, T. Stevens, M. Morahan, A. Aleman, R. Vogel, S. Leicester, H. Weir, M. Meaux, S. Grebas, C.Solomon, M. Holland, T. Northcutt, R. A. Restrepo, R. Bilodeau, 2013. NASA/Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Earth Science Keywords. Version 8.0.0.0.0