GEDI 2021

In July-August 2021, NASA's LVIS Facility flew over the eastern US and French Guiana collecting calibration and validation data for NASA's GEDI. Two LVIS lidars and two camera sensors were operated on the NASA G-V aircraft (collection parameters shown in mission information tables below). During the 3-week deployment eight flights were flown out of Baltimore, MD and San Juan, PR. Science targets in the US and French Guiana included sections of GEDI reference ground tracks, existing ground-based data collections, and previous LVIS data collection sites.


Flight trajectories are available on this page.


GEDI (Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation) is a space-based lidar sensor mounted on the ISS collecting surface topography and canopy height measurements between ~51 N and S since 2019.


Use the python code posted here to view the data products from this mission.

LVIS Mission Information

LVIS Lidars
Instruments: LVIS Facility LVIS Classic
Flight Platform: NASA Gulfstream V
Nominal Flight Altitude: 12 km (10 km in French Guiana)
Nominal Footprint Diameter: 10m
(0.75 mrad)		 25m
(2 mrad)
Data Products: LVISF1B, LVISF2 LVISC1B, LVISC2
LVIS Cameras
Camera Model: Canon EOS 5DS R
Lens Models: Carl Zeiss Makro-Planar
T* 100mm f/2 ZE		 Carl Zeiss Planar
T* 85mm f/1.4 ZE
Image Resolution: 50.3 Megapixels
8688px x 5792px		 50.3 Megapixels
5792px x 8688px
Nominal Resolution: 4.2km x 2.8km (0.5m/px) 3.3km x 4.9km (0.6m/px)
Nominal Overlap: 67% 80%
Data Product: LVISCAM1 (mounted next to LVIS Facility) LVISCAM2 (mounted next to LVIS Classic)

Resources

Airports

  • KEFD - Ellington Field (Houston, TX, USA)
  • KBWI - Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (Baltimore, MD, USA)
  • TJSJ - Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport (San Juan, PR, USA)

Data Products

LVIS Data Products Format Download Location
Flight TrajectoriesKMZThis page
Coverage MapsKMZThis page
LVIS L1A Camera ImageryJPG*NSIDC1, NASA EarthData
LVIS Classic L1B Geolocated WaveformsHDF, LDS 2.0.3NSIDC1, NASA EarthData
LVIS Classic L2 Elevation and Height ProductsASCII TXT, LDS 2.0.3NSIDC1, NASA EarthData
LVIS Facility L1B Geolocated WaveformsHDF, LDS 2.0.3NSIDC1, NASA EarthData
LVIS Facility L2 Elevation and Height ProductsASCII TXT, LDS 2.0.3NSIDC1, NASA EarthData

1 At NSIDC, search for date ranges 01 Jul 2021 through 31 Aug 2021



View MJD Date Region / Remarks GPS Flight Trajectory Preliminary LVIS Coverage* (Key) L2 Gridded KMZs† Photo KMZs†
Classic Facility CAM1 CAM2
59411 16 July 2021 Sensor calibration flight, Gulf of Mexico [kmz] [kmz] [kmz] [kmz]
59414 19 July 2021 Houston to Baltimore, GEDI tracks in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey [kmz] [kmz] [ZG]
[RH95] 		[ZG]
[RH95] 		[kmz] [kmz]
59415 20 July 2021 GEDI tracks in Ohio, West Virginia, and Virginia [kmz] [kmz] [ZG]
[RH95] 		[ZG]
[RH95] 		[kmz] [kmz]
59418 23 July 2021 GEDI tracks in French Guiana [kmz] [kmz] [ZG]
[RH95] 		[ZG]
[RH95] 		[kmz] [kmz]
59422 27 July 2021 GEDI tracks in French Guiana [kmz] [kmz] [ZG]
[RH95] 		[ZG]
[RH95] 		[kmz] [kmz]
59424 29 July 2021 GEDI tracks in French Guiana.
Portions of some lines repeated at 23,000 ft altitude.		 [kmz] [kmz] [ZG]
[RH95] 		[ZG]
[RH95] 		[kmz] [kmz]
59426 31 July 2021 GEDI tracks in French Guiana.
Portions of some lines repeated at 23,000 ft altitude.		 [kmz] [kmz] [ZG]
[RH95] 		[ZG]
[RH95] 		[kmz] [kmz]
59427 01 August 2021 San Juan to Baltimore [kmz] [kmz] [ZG]
[RH95] 		[ZG]
[RH95] 		[kmz] [kmz]
59431 05 August 2021 Mapping of Coweeta and Oak Ridge areas, TN. SERC line, MD. GEDI tracks in VA, WV.
Portions of some lines repeated at 23,000 ft altitude.		 [kmz] [kmz] [ZG]
[RH95] 		[ZG]
[RH95] 		[kmz] [kmz]
59432 06 August 2021 GEDI tracks in Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, and New Hampshire. Harvard Forest mapping, MA. Line over Hubbard Brook LTER/Bartlett EF, NH [kmz] [kmz] [ZG]
[RH95] 		[ZG]
[RH95] 		[kmz] [kmz]
Jul - Aug 2021 All Flights [kmz]

*Preliminary LVIS Coverage locations are generated shortly after a flight and based on quicklook product information and are intended for general guidance only.
Key: Red=0%, Pink=1-10%, Orange=10-20%, Yellow=20-50%, Green=50-100%
†Warning: Gridded and Photo KMZ files are large and may take some time to load in Google Earth