Tropical Forest Canopy Structure and Change Assessment Using Landsat, GEDI, and Airborne Lidar Data.

Spatiotemporally consistent multidecadal data on forest extent and structure is the key for quantifying carbon storage, GHG emissions, degradation, and recovery of tropical forests. Consistently processed long-term Landsat data record is the only tool that enables such capacity. Here, we prototyped regional-level 2000–2019 forest structure monitoring and pantropical forest structure mapping for the year 2019 through the integration of the Landsat analysis-ready data with airborne lidar and Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) data. The presented approach can support the data needs of many global, regional, and national climate change mitigation and sustainable development initiatives.