Graduate Research Assistant/ Master's Student Auburn University Auburn, Alabama, United States
Hurricanes pose a major threat to coastal areas of the Southeastern United States. The Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite 2 (ICESat-2) is a spaceborne lidar mission for observing ice elevation, topography, and vegetation characteristics. In this study, we investigate ICESat-2 to assess storm impact, focusing on Hurricane Sally.
Learning Objectives:
Upon completion, participants will be able to understand that damage inflicted on forests by hurricanes is critical for post-recovery and for projecting future ecosystem services. The Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite 2 (ICESat-2) mission presents an opportunity to monitor ecosystem characteristics by using photon counting-based altimetry. This study will describe the utility of ATL08 (Land and vegetation product) for generating pre- and post-canopy metrics to access vegetation structural changes over the path and extent of Hurricane Sally.
Upon completion, participants will be able to describe accuracies derived from spaceborne light detection and ranging platforms like the ICESat-2 for demonstrating changes in canopy height and canopy cover over a broad regional area with temporally co-incident airborne lidar from airborne and field platforms. This study further describes the multi-resolution ability of ICESat-2 utilizing canopy parameters derived from the ATL08 (Land and vegetation product) for hurricane-driven forest structural damages.
