Forest Properties and Carbon Cycle Studies from Earth Observations

Klaus Scipal received the M.Sc. degree in geodesy and the Ph.D. degree in remote sensing from the Vienna University of Technology (TUW), Vienna, Austria, in 1999 and 2002, respectively. From 2002 to 2006, he was an Assistant Professor with the TUW leading the scatterometer group. In 2006, he joined the satellite data assimilation section of the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts, working on the land surface assimilation system. Since 2009, he is with the Mission Science Division of the European Space Agency contributing to the definition and development of future earth observation satellites.Anny Cazenave is director for Earth sciences at the International Space Science Institute, Bern, Switzerland and emeritus scientist at the ‘Laboratoire d’Etudes en Géophysique et Océanographie Spatiale’, Toulouse, France. Her research deals with the applications of space techniques to geosciences (geodesy, solid Earth geophysics, sealevel change and climatic causes, land hydrology from space).Teodolina Lopez received the Ph.D. degree in planetary science from the University Toulouse III in 2011. After different post-doctoral positions in France, she held an Earth Science post-doctoral position, from 2016 to 2019, at the International Space Science Institute (ISSI) in Bern, Switzerland. Her research focuses on the characterisation in (semi-) arid regions of the groundwater flow and transfers and their interaction with the atmosphere. This approach relies on the synergy between Earth Observation dataset (mostly thermal infrared and gravity) with in situ measurements (geophysical, geochemical and geology) and simulations.

• Guest Editorial: International Space Science Institute (ISSI) Workshop on Space-Based Measurement of Forest Properties for Carbon Cycle Research.- Aspects of Forest Biomass in the Earth System: Its Role and Major Unknowns.- The Relevance of Forest Structure for Biomass and Productivity in Temperate Forests: New Perspectives for Remote Sensing.- Understanding the Land Carbon Cycle with Space Data: Current Status and Prospects.- The Role and Need for Space-Based Forest Biomass-Related Measurements in Environmental Management and Policy.- The Status of Technologies to Measure Forest Biomass and Structural Properties: State of the Art in SAR Tomography of Tropical Forests.- Early Lessons on Combining Lidar and Multi-baseline SAR Measurements for Forest Structure Characterization.- Recent Advances in Forest Observation with Visual Interpretation of Very High-Resolution Imagery.- Ground Data are Essential for Biomass Remote Sensing Missions.- Upscaling Forest Biomass from Field to SatelliteMeasurements: Sources of Errors and Ways to Reduce Them.- Species Matter: Wood Density Influences Tropical Forest Biomass at Multiple Scales. Innovations in Ground and Airborne Technologies as Reference and for Training and Validation: Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS).- New Opportunities for Forest Remote Sensing Through Ultra-High-Density Drone Lidar.- The Importance of Consistent Global Forest Aboveground Biomass Product Validation.- Using a Finer Resolution Biomass Map to Assess the Accuracy of a Regional, Map-Based Estimate of Forest Biomass.- A Joint ESA-NASA Multi-mission Algorithm and Analysis Platform (MAAP) for Biomass, NISAR, and GEDI.