Subrata Nandy (Early Adopter)

Forestry and Ecology Department, Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, Indian Space Research Organisation

Applied Research Topic: 

Forest carbon stock assessment and monitoring: A study in Indian tropical forest using ICESat-2 data

Abstract: 

National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) follow-on Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite mission (ICESat-2) will be launched in 2017. The sensor configuration of ICESat-2 is different in many ways from the previous mission ICESat. Spatial resolution will be higher and micro-pulse photon concept has been introduced in the new mission. These offers an ample opportunity to monitor forest biophysical parameters and estimate derived products from those biophysical parameters in better way. Also the processing, analyzing and interpretation of the new datasets are challenging and interesting in the research and development point of view. The operational use of ICESat-2 spaceborne LiDAR data may pave the way of speedy and accurate estimation of India’s forest biomass and carbon sequestration potential.

One of the primary interests of this study is to assess and monitor forest biomass and carbon stock using ICESat-2 simulated datasets. The second objective is to monitor the seasonal variation of Leaf area index (LAI) from ICESat-2/ATL data. And finally a forest informatics system will be developed for end user. The end user may be forest departments, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), Forest Survey of India (FSI) or the institutes/organisations in India involving forestry research.

SDT Member Partner: 
Co-Investigator(s): 
  • Surajit Ghosh, Forestry and Ecology Department, Indian institute of Remote Sensing, Indian Space Research Organisation; Role: Field data collection, ICESat-2/ALT data analysis and interpretation.
  • Parshant Dhanda, Divisional Forest Officer, Forest Department, Govt. of Assam; Role: Field data collection, ICESat-2/ALT data analysis and interpretation.
  • Bijendra Longjam, Role: Field data collection, ICESat-2/ALT data analysis and interpretation.
End Users: 

Forest Department, Govt. of Assam, India (POC: Parshant Dhanda, IFS, Divisional Forest Officer)

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