Press Release of Global Forest Mapping Program

NASDA, the National Space Development Agency of Japan, has initiated the Global Forest Mapping Program as an effort led by the Earth Observation Research Center (EORC) of NASDA. The projects associated with the program are international in scope and rely on cooperation with, among others, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the Space Applications Institute of the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (JRC/SAI), NASA's Alaska SAR Facility (ASF), European Space Agency (ESA), German Aerospace Center (DLR), Swedish National Space Board (SNSB), Canadian Centre for Remote Sensing (CCRS), NASDA's Earth Observation Center (EOC), the Unversity of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research (INPE) and the National Institute for Research of the Amazon(INPA). The Program's goal is to acquire geographically contiguous and temporally homogeneous Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data sets of the Earth's major tropical and boreal forests using the Japanese Earth Resources Satellite (JERS-1 or FUYO-1).

The GFMP's Global Rain Forest Mapping Project (GRFM) is divided into three geographical regions: South and Central America, Central and Western Africa, and South-East Asia and Northern Australia. Each region was observed at least twice during a "single season" between September 1995 and January 1997.

The GFMP's Global Boreal Forest Mapping Project (GBFM) is also divided into three geographical regions: Alaska and Canadian North America; Northern Europe, the United Kingdom, and Iceland; and Siberia. Each region is slated to be observed at least twice during the period January 1997 through December 2000.

IMAGE:NASDA/JPL/JRC Forest Mapping Projects

==> Click Here Large Image

Global Forest Mapping Program: The Global Forest Mapping Program (GFMP) is a multinational effort led by the Earth Observation Research Center (EORC) of the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA) in cooperation with, among others, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the Space Applications Institute of the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (JRC/SAI), NASA's Alaska SAR Facility (ASF), European Space Agency (ESA), German Aerospace Center (DLR), Swedish National Space Board (SNSB), Canadian Centre for Remote Sensing (CCRS), NASDA's Earth Observation Center (EOC), the Unversity of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research (INPE) and the National Institute for Research of the Amazon(INPA).; Its goal is to acquire geographically and temporally contiguous Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data sets of the Earth's major forest systems by using the Japanese Earth Resources Satellite (JERS-1 or FUYO-1). The two projects associated with this initiative are the Global Rain Forest Mapping Project (GRFM) and the Global Boreal Forest Mapping Project (GBFM). The GRFM has been in operation since 1995 whereas the GBFM has been an official NASDA project since the beginning of Japan's 1998 fiscal year.; About thirty international research teams are currently associated with the GRFM with a similar number of international research teams expected for inclusion in the GBFM.

GRFM: This project is divided into three geographical regions: South and Central America, Central and Western Africa, and South-East Asia and Northern Australia. Each region was observed at least once during a "single season" between September 1995 and January 1997.

South and Central America: The entire Amazon Basin, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, was acquired in a single sweep during the generally low flood time of the Amazon River in September - December 1995. This portion of the data set comprises some 1500 (ASF processed) scenes and covers an area of about 8 million km². The same area, including the Northern part of South America and Central America, was covered again in May - August 1996, during a high flood period of the Amazon river.

Africa: SAR data over central and West Africa, from the Eastern coast of Kenya to Liberia and Guinea in the West were acquired in January-March 1996. The area covered lies between 9 deg north and 9 deg South, extends approximately 6000km along the equator and amounts to about 2000 NASDA processed scenes or 8 million km². The Congo River Basin, about 3.5 million km², was also covered during October - November 1996 (the high water season of the river). Madagascar was acquired in January 1997.

South East Asia: Finally, South-East Asia, including the major islands of New Guinea, Borneo/Kalimantan, the Philippine Islands, Java, Sulawesi, Sumatra, the Indochina peninsula and, in addition, northern Australia, were covered in late 1996 and early 1997. This area covers approximately 4000 NASDA processed scenes.

Several GRFM CD-roms are planned for production during 1998 and 1999. These CD-ROMs will contain both 3 arcsec (89-93 meter) binary image files, and lower resolution 15 arcsec (445-465 meter) GIF images. These images will be mosaics of the individual JERS-1 image scenes. Typically, around 50 JERS-1 image scenes are contained within each sub-mosaic. The tentative catalog is as follows (the CD-ROMs will not be made in chronological order):

Volume	Region	Acquisition Dates	# Disks
AM-1	South America	Selected scenes	2
AM-2	South America	September/December 1995	2
AM-3	South America	September/December 1995 May/July 1996	4
AFR-1	Africa	Selected scenes	2
AFR-2	Central and Western Africa	January/March 1996	2
AFR-3	Central Africa	October/November 1996	1
SEA-1	S.E. Asia	Selected scenes	2
SEA-2	S.E. Asia	November 1996/February 1997	3

National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA) Earth Observation Research Center (EORC) Tokyo, Japan: NASDA's EORC is responsible for overall GRFM project management. This includes mission planning, coordination and implementation of science/engineering objectives and activities with the project partners, web site and CD-ROM development with JPL, and mosaicking. JERS-1 data acquisition and monitoring for the project as a whole, high-resolution data processing for the Africa and South East Asia datasets, and calibration of data products are also coordinated through NASDA's Earth Observation Center (EOC) in Hatoyama, Japan. Data analyses are conducted with particular emphasis placed on the South East Asia dataset.

Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Pasadena, California, USA: NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is responsible for low resolution data processing and analysis of data from South and Central America. This includes monitoring the data acquisitions and processing of the data at the Alaska SAR facility, generating low resolution data products, verification of the calibration of the ASF data, web site and cd-rom development, and mosaicking. JPL is also working with other institutions such as the Unversity of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research (INPE) and National Institute for Research of the Amazon(INPA) on validation of the interpretation of the data.

Joint Research Center of the European Commission Space Applications Institute, MTV Unit (JRC/SAI) Ispra, Italy: JRC/SAI is responsible for low resolution data processing, generation of image mosaics and analysis of data from Western and Central Africa. Raw data processing is performed by NASDA, while radiometric verification and additional calibration of the data is performed by JRC/SAI.

The Alaska SAR Facility (ASF)
Fairbanks, Alaska, USA: The Alaska SAR Facility is responsible for the processing and calibration of the data from South and Central America to full resolution data products. In addition, a large number of data acquisitions are downlinked to ASF.

IMAGE:GRFM South America Low-water Classification Image
==> Click Here Large Image

GRFM South America Low-water Classification Image

GBFM: This project is divided into three geographical regions: Northern Europe including the United Kingdom and Iceland, Siberia, and Canadian North America and Alaska. Each region will be observed at least twice to provide summer and winter datasets between January 1997 and September 1999. Multi-temporal concurrent data acquisition from JERS-1's L-band SAR sensor will also occur during late 1997 and early 1998 in conjunction with the ERS-1/2 C-band tandem data acquisition using DLR's mobile ground station in Mongolia.; When completed, the summer and winter mosaics for the defined boreal regions will comprise over 18 000 JERS-1 scenes and each seasonal mosaic will cover a geographic area greater than 50 million km².

Earth Observation Research Center

Last Update: 07 December 1998