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Full catalog/Salt_Marsh_Biomass_CONUS_2348
Salt_Marsh_Biomass_CONUS_2348·v1·dataset

How much plant matter salt marshes hold (US, 2020)

Aboveground Biomass Estimates for Salt Marsh for the Contiguous United States, 2020
biosphere NASA ORNL_CLOUD Level 3 COG
In plain English

What it measures. Estimates how much living plant matter (aboveground biomass) salt marshes held across U.S. coasts in 2020, along with where salt marshes are, mapped at fine 10-meter detail with uncertainty included.

How it's made. Produced by machine-learning models that learned from wetland maps, elevation data, and Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 satellite imagery, then checked against on-the-ground measurements in Georgia and Massachusetts.

How & where you'd use it. Useful for tracking how much carbon coastal marshes store, monitoring the health and extent of these wetlands, and supporting coastal management and conservation.

What's measured

BIOSPHERE › ECOSYSTEMS › MARINE ECOSYSTEMS › COASTALBIOSPHERE › VEGETATION › BIOMASS

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2020-01-01 → 2020-12-31
  • Measured byCOMPUTERS (Computer) · Sentinel-1A (SAR) · Sentinel-1B (SAR) · Sentinel-2A (SAR) · Sentinel-2B (SAR)
  • Processing levelLevel 3
  • Spatial extent-124.74, 24.5181, -66.935, 49.0042
  • 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 estimates of aboveground biomass (AGB) and salt marsh extent in the contiguous United States for 2020 and includes all coastal watersheds across the contiguous United States at 10-m resolution. Estimates were generated by XGBoost machine learning regression. Salt marsh extent was classified using an ensemble of XGBoost, random forests, and support vector machines, trained with salt marsh location identified with the National Wetland Inventory (NWI). The data are organized by Hydrologic Unit Code (HUC) 6-digit basin. Within each HUC, the spatial extent of salt marsh and its uncertainty were estimated by machine learning and input data from NWI maps, the National Elevation Dataset, along with Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 imagery. Estimates were compared to in situ biomass data from salt marshes in Georgia and Massachusetts. The data are provided in cloud-optimized GeoTIFF format.

Get the data

salt_marsh_biomass_conus_2348_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="Salt_Marsh_Biomass_CONUS_2348",
    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.