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Full catalog/GEDI02_B
GEDI02_B·v002·dataset

How thick and tall forest canopy is (GEDI)

GEDI L2B Canopy Cover and Vertical Profile Metrics Data Global Footprint Level V002
biosphere NASA LPCLOUD Level 2B HDF5
In plain English

What it measures. The structure of forest canopies at each measured spot, including how much of the ground is covered by canopy, how dense the foliage is, and how leaves are distributed from the treetops down.

How it's made. Created from laser pulses fired by the GEDI instrument on the International Space Station, which records the 3-D shape of vegetation, then converted into canopy metrics for each footprint.

How & where you'd use it. Used to estimate how much carbon forests store, study biodiversity and habitat, and understand the planet's carbon cycle.

What's measured

BIOSPHERE › VEGETATION › CANOPY CHARACTERISTICSBIOSPHERE › VEGETATION › VEGETATION COVERLAND SURFACE › TOPOGRAPHY › TERRAIN ELEVATION › DIGITAL ELEVATION/TERRAIN MODEL (DEM)SPECTRAL/ENGINEERING › SENSOR CHARACTERISTICS › VIEWING GEOMETRYLAND SURFACE › TOPOGRAPHY › TERRAIN ELEVATIONSPECTRAL/ENGINEERING › LIDARLAND SURFACE › TOPOGRAPHYBIOSPHERE › VEGETATION › CANOPY CHARACTERISTICS › VEGETATION HEIGHT

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2019-04-04 → 2023-03-16
  • Measured byISS (GEDI)
  • Processing levelLevel 2B
  • Spatial extent-180, -54, 180, 54
  • FormatsHDF5
  • StatusCOMPLETE

What you can do with it

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

The Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation ([GEDI](https://gedi.umd.edu/)) mission aims to characterize ecosystem structure and dynamics to enable radically improved quantification and understanding of the Earth’s carbon cycle and biodiversity. The GEDI instrument produces high resolution laser ranging observations of the 3-dimensional structure of the Earth. GEDI is attached to the International Space Station (ISS) and collects data globally between 51.6° N and 51.6° S latitudes at the highest resolution and densest sampling of any light detection and ranging (lidar) instrument in orbit to date. Each GEDI Version 2 granule encompasses one-fourth of an ISS orbit and includes georeferenced metadata to allow for spatial querying and subsetting. The GEDI instrument was removed from the ISS and placed into storage on March 17, 2023. No data were acquired during the hibernation period from March 17, 2023, to April 24, 2024. GEDI has since been reinstalled on the ISS and resumed operations as of April 26, 2024. The purpose of the GEDI Level 2B Canopy Cover and Vertical Profile Metrics product (GEDI02_B) is to extract biophysical metrics from each GEDI waveform. These metrics are based on the directional gap probability profile derived from the L1B waveform. Metrics provided include canopy cover, Plant Area Index (PAI), Plant Area Volume Density (PAVD), and Foliage Height Diversity (FHD). The GEDI02_B product is provided in HDF5 format and has a spatial resolution (average footprint) of 25 meters. The GEDI02_B data product contains 96 layers for each of the eight-beam ground transects (or laser footprints located on the land surface). Datasets provided include precise latitude, longitude, elevation, height, canopy cover, and vertical profile metrics. Additional information for the layers can be found in the GEDI Level 2B Data Dictionary. Known Issues * Data acquisition gaps: GEDI data acquisitions were suspended on December 19, 2019 (2019 Day 353) and resumed on January 8, 2020 (2020 Day 8). * Incorrect Reference Ground Track (RGT) number in the filename for select GEDI files: GEDI Science Data Products for six orbits on August 7, 2020, and November 12, 2021, had the incorrect RGT number in the filename. There is no impact to the science data, but users should reference this [document](https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/documents/2236/GEDI_CORRECTED_RGT_FILENAMES.pptx) for the correct RGT numbers. * Known Issues: Section 8 of the User Guide provides additional information on known issues.

Get the data

gedi02_b_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="GEDI02_B",
    version="002",
    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 LPCLOUD
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.