National Scale Forest Information Extraction from Coarse Resolution Satellite Data, Part 1

Forests provide essential economic and ecological services, and their essential role in the planetary system is being increasingly recognized. In parallel, the demand for timely and accurate information on the status and function of the forest biome, for a variety of purposes, is also increasing. While traditionally forest information was gathered in situ or through air photography, the role of satellite remote sensing is becoming central because of the need to match the spatial and temporal scales of observations to those of the key forest processes. In this Chapter, we briefly review (i) data processing issues underpinning the use of ‘coarse resolution’ optical satellite data for terrestrial studies, and (ii) an application to land cover mapping at the national level. An accompanying Chapter (13) describes the use of the processed data sets to derive information on biophysical parameters, land cover change, and carbon uptake. The discussion draws heavily on our work in Canada but the findings are applicable to similar geographic and ecoclimatic conditions elsewhere.