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Full catalog/GEDI_ICESAT2_Global_Veg_Height_2294
GEDI_ICESAT2_Global_Veg_Height_2294·v1·dataset

How tall the world's plants are (GEDI + ICESat-2)

Global Vegetation Height Metrics from GEDI and ICESat2
biosphere NASA ORNL_CLOUD Level 3 COG
In plain English

What it measures. Global maps of how tall vegetation stands, reported as several canopy-height measures (for example, the height below which 98%, 90%, 75%, or 50% of the laser's returned energy falls). Available at resolutions from 100 meters to 1 kilometer.

How it's made. Built by combining laser-ranging measurements from two space instruments, GEDI (on the International Space Station) and ICESat-2, collected between 2019 and 2022 and stitched into global rasters.

How & where you'd use it. Used to study forest structure, estimate how much carbon forests store, and map habitats and ecosystems around the world.

What's measured

BIOSPHERE › VEGETATION › CANOPY CHARACTERISTICS › VEGETATION HEIGHTBIOSPHERE › VEGETATION › FOREST COMPOSITION/VEGETATION STRUCTURE

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2019-01-01 → 2022-12-31
  • Measured byICESat-2 (ATLAS) · ISS (GEDI)
  • Processing levelLevel 3
  • 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 rasters of relative height metrics for vegetation from Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) L2A data and Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) L3A ATL08 data at 100-, 200-, 500-, and 1000-m spatial resolutions. The metrics include the relative heights RH98, RH90, RH75, and RH50, corresponding to the height at which the respective 98th, 90th, 75th, and 50th percentile of returned energy is reached relative to the ground. These metrics provide measures of vegetation canopy height and structure. The different relative height metrics were intercalibrated over the overlap area (50 - 52 degrees N). GEDI data were collected from 2019-2022, and ICESat2 data were from 2019-2021. The data are provided in cloud optimized GeoTIFF format.

Get the data

gedi_icesat2_global_veg_height_2294_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="GEDI_ICESAT2_Global_Veg_Height_2294",
    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.