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Full catalog/CMS_Global_Forest_AGC_2180
CMS_Global_Forest_AGC_2180·v1·dataset

Carbon stored in the world's forests (2018-2021)

Global Forest Aboveground Carbon Stocks and Fluxes from GEDI and ICESat-2, 2018-2021
biosphere NASA ORNL_CLOUD Level 4 COG
In plain English

What it measures. Global maps of how much carbon is stored in the world's forests and how that carbon is shifting, estimated for 2018 to 2021 at fine resolution.

How it's made. Built by feeding tree-height measurements from two NASA space-based laser missions (GEDI and ICESat-2) into an ecosystem model that simulates forest growth and carbon over time.

How & where you'd use it. Supports understanding of how much carbon forests hold and release, which matters for climate accounting and forest management.

What's measured

BIOSPHERE › VEGETATION › CARBONBIOSPHERE › ECOLOGICAL DYNAMICS › ECOSYSTEM FUNCTIONS › CARBON SEQUESTRATIONCLIMATE INDICATORS › CARBON FLUXBIOSPHERE › ECOSYSTEMS › TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEMS › FORESTS

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2018-10-01 → 2021-10-01
  • Measured byICESat-2 (ATLAS) · ISS (GEDI)
  • Processing levelLevel 4
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90
  • FormatsCOG
  • StatusCOMPLETE

What you can do with it

  • Map vegetation, forests and biomass
  • Monitor ecosystem productivity and carbon
  • Support habitat and biodiversity studies
Official description

This dataset provides global gridded estimates of forest aboveground carbon stocks and potential fluxes at a 0.01-degree resolution. It was derived by initializing a newly developed global Ecosystem Demography model (ED v3.0) with novel remote sensing observations of tree canopy height collected by GEDI and ICESat-2, two NASA spaceborne lidar missions. A total of 3.77 billion lidar samples were used to generate gridded canopy height histograms that were then linked to ED simulations of canopy height and carbon dynamics during ecosystem succession. This process constrained representation of contemporary forest conditions and associated carbon stocks and fluxes in the model. Inputs that drove these simulations included meteorology, carbon dioxide levels, and soil properties. The data are provided in cloud-optimized GeoTIFF format.

Get the data

cms_global_forest_agc_2180_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="CMS_Global_Forest_AGC_2180",
    version="1",
    bounding_box=(-122.5, 37.2, -121.8, 37.9),  # your area (W,S,E,N)
    temporal=("2024-01-01", "2024-12-31"),       # your dates
)
files = earthaccess.open(results)   # stream straight from ORNL_CLOUD
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.