Brazilian Rainforest Logged Area Canopy Change 2013-2016

  • Released Tuesday, June 12, 2018
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This data visualization starts with an airplane collecting lidar over a flat plane. As the data is collected a strip of the 2013 Brazilian rainforest canopy can be seen. Once the plane flies past, we spin the camera around to get a better view of the treetop canopy data. We then highlight areas of the canopy that will undergo significant change from 2013 to 2016. Finally, we allow those highlighted areas (ie, trees and tree branches) to fall the the ground, revealing the new 2016 forest canopy.

This visualization shows LIDAR (LIght Detection And Ranging) canopy data over the Brazilian Rainforest and how successive passes between 2013 to 2016 show changes to the treetop canopies. In this particular case, the area of interest appears to have been logged due to the very high number of downed trees. Together these data points provide scientists with information on foliage distribution and the elements of tree canopy. Similar LIDAR technologies are used to measure terrain topographies on the Moon and Mars.

Print resolution image of the 2013 Brazilian Forest Canopy with change areas highlighted.

Print resolution image of the 2013 Brazilian Forest Canopy with change areas highlighted.

Print resolution image of the 2016 forest canopy.

Print resolution image of the 2016 forest canopy.

Credits

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NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio

This page was originally published on Tuesday, June 12, 2018.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, October 9, 2024 at 12:08 AM EDT.

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Related papers

https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nph.15110

https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nph.15110

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