The ORNL DAAC and the LBA DIS announce the release of two data sets associated with the LBA-ECO component of the Large Scale Biosphere- Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia (LBA).
- LBA-ECO LC-15 JERS-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar, 1- km Mosaic, Amazon Basin: 1995-1996 . Data set prepared by S.S. Saatchi, B. Nelson, E. Podest, and J. Holt. This data set contains two image mosaics of L-band radar backscatter and two images of derived first order texture. The mosaics were created from 1,500 images collected by the Japanese Earth Resources Satellite-1 (JERS-1) Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) over the Amazon River Basin as part of the Global Rainforest Mapping Project (GRMP). Backscatter image mosaics were developed for the dry season of 1995 and the wet season of 1996. For each backscatter image, first order texture statistical information was derived and is distributed along with the image mosaic.
- LBA-ECO LC-15 Vegetation Cover Types from MODIS, 1-km, Amazon Basin: 2000-2001 . Data set prepared by M.C. Hansen, R.S. DeFries, J.R.G. Townshend, M. Carroll, C. Dimiceli, R.A. Sohlberg, and S.S. Saatchi. This data set contains 3 images of proportional estimates of woody vegetation, herbaceous vegetation, and bare ground over the Amazon Basin for the period 2000-2001. These products were derived from all seven bands of the Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor onboard NASA's Terra satellite. A set of MODIS 32-day composites were used to create the vegetation cover types using the continuous field approach (Hansen et al., 2002).
LBA is an international research initiative under the leadership of Brazil. The project focuses on the climatological, ecological, biogeochemical, and hydrological functions of Amazonia; the impact of land use change on these functions; and the interactions between Amazonia and the Earth system. The LBA-ECO component, which is funded by NASA, focuses on the question: "How do tropical forest conversion, regrowth, and selective logging influence carbon storage, nutrient dynamics, trace gas fluxes, and the prospect for sustainable land use in Amazonia?"
See the LBA Project page for further information about the study and to access associated data and documentation maintained by the ORNL DAAC.
The ORNL DAAC is a NASA-funded data center archiving and distributing terrestrial ecology and biogeochemical dynamics data. The LBA Data and Information System (LBA-DIS) has been developed by INPE with NASA's participation.