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Scientists and forest experts are asking questions Nasa to extend the life of a “key” climate and biodiversity sensor due to be destroyed in the Earth’s atmosphere early next year.
The Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (Gedi) mission – pronounced like Jedi in Star Wars – was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to the International Space Station (ISS) in December 2018, and has provided the first 3D map of the world’s forests.
Data from the Nasa mission, which has used billions of laser beam signals to measure the height, shape and health of the Earth’s trees since April 2019, has been helping scientists answer questions about land-use change, a key driver of the climate crisis and Biodiversity lossThis includes the amount of carbon trees store and the effects of forest fires on our atmosphere.
The $150m project is scheduled to be “de-orbited” from the ISS early next year and the sensor – roughly the size of a fridge – will be incinerated in the Earth’s atmosphere.
Researchers overseeing the project, based at the University of Maryland, have asked for an extension to allow Gedi to finish its work and calibrate the results with other satellites due to launch this decade that will monitor the planet’s ecosystems. Early results indicate that there may be more carbon stored on the ground than previously thought.
While they acknowledge Gedi’s lifetime has already been extended once, in March 2021, the researchers say extensions on the ISS are common and the tool is providing crucial data, including helping to monitor the Cop26 commitment from 142 countries to Reverse and halt deforestationBy 2030
“The biggest uncertainty we have in terms of atmospheric CO2 concentrations driving climate change is the balance between deforestation and subsequent regrowth. Gedi is helping us address that,” said Prof Ralph Dubayah, principal investigator on the mission. “If you want to Plant a trillion trees, go ahead. But you have to know what you’re starting with to know what kind of impact that’s going to have.”
Leading forest experts support calls for a halt to execution. They called the sensor a “key tool” for understanding global heating and described its pending destruction as a waste of money.
The Guardian contacted Nasa to find out if Gedi had been extended beyond its primary mission to allow for additional data collection. He said that Gedi will be replaced by another sensor in the early part of next year.
Although scientists know the planet’s trees are an enormous carbon store holding The equivalent of nearly a century’s worth of annual fossil fuel emissions at the current rate, basic questions about the size and structure of forests remain unanswered.
Researchers tracking emissions from land-use changes face difficulties because of this uncertainty.
“Considering that we have to accelerate climate action, and forests are something we can use for mitigation, it is critical that Gedi meets its scientific goals,” said Laura Duncanson, a research scientist on the Gedi team.
Inge Jonckheere, an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC) author and head of remote sensing and climate change at the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, said: “Every country can come up with its own definition of a forest. You can fill in the numbers, and then everyone has to accept them as true. But with satellites, we can check them,” said Jonckheere.
Fred Stolle is the deputy director of the World Resource Institute’s forest programme. He said that his organisation was adding Gedi information to its database. Global Forest Watch platform, one of the primary free sources of reliable information about the world’s forests.
“Currently, our main tool is tree cover from the Landsat program. But now we are shifting to tree height because it is a better indicator of forest health using Gedi,” he said. “The data allows us to find important areas of forest and say: do not touch this.”
Diego Saez Gil, head of Pachama, a carbon offsetting firm that uses AI and remote sensing to verify and monitor carbon capture by forests, said Gedi provided “the best available data to estimate the carbon stored in forests”.
“The longer Gedi stays in orbit, the more spatial coverage we can get, improving the quality of biomass estimates. If Gedi were to remain in orbit, we could have long-term continuous records of biomass.”
Matthew Hansen, a remote sensing scientist, stated that the combination of GEDI, other Nasa land monitoring, and GEDI is the scientific standard for deforestation research. enabled researchers to “assess deforestation and associated emissions, as well as restoration efforts”.
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