Earth Data School
About
Full catalog/CMS_LiDAR_AGB_California_1537
CMS_LiDAR_AGB_California_1537·v1·dataset

How much carbon California forests store (lidar, 2005-2014)

LiDAR-Derived Aboveground Biomass and Uncertainty for California Forests, 2005-2014
biosphere NASA ORNL_CLOUD Level 3 multiple
In plain English

What it measures. How much carbon is stored in the above-ground parts of California's forests, plus an estimate of how uncertain each value is, for sites surveyed between 2005 and 2014.

How it's made. Built from 53 airborne lidar surveys; individual tree crowns were detected and their biomass estimated with tailored equations, then provided per-tree and as grids.

How & where you'd use it. Supports carbon accounting, forest management, and climate research by showing where and how much carbon California forests hold.

What's measured

BIOSPHERE › VEGETATION › CANOPY CHARACTERISTICSBIOSPHERE › VEGETATION › BIOMASS

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2005-01-01 → 2014-12-31
  • Measured byAirplane (LIDAR)
  • Processing levelLevel 3
  • Spatial extent-123.746, 34.0508, -117.739, 41.9828
  • Formatsmultiple
  • 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 estimates of aboveground biomass and spatially explicit uncertainty from 53 airborne LiDAR surveys of locations throughout California between 2005 and 2014. Aboveground biomass was estimated by performing individual tree crown detection and applying a customized "remote sensing aware" allometric equation to these individual trees. Aboveground biomass estimates and their uncertainties for each study area are provided in per-tree and gridded format. The canopy height models used for the tree detection and biomass estimation are also provided.

Get the data

cms_lidar_agb_california_1537_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="CMS_LiDAR_AGB_California_1537",
    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.