Conference Agenda

Tropical forests play a pivotal role in the global carbon cycle, sequestering vast amounts of atmospheric CO₂ and storing it as aboveground biomass (AGB). Accurate AGB estimation is fundamental for monitoring forest health and understanding carbon dynamics under changing climatic conditions. Satellite-based observations, such as those provided by the European Space Agency’s (ESA) BIOMASS mission, offer powerful means for large-scale forest carbon assessment; however, their reliability depends on robust ground-based calibration and validation. This project aims to calibrate and validate the BIOMASS mission’s AGB and canopy height (H100) products across tropical forests in São Paulo State, Brazil. The mission’s novel P-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) provides unprecedented sensitivity to forest structural properties, but its performance must be evaluated in the highly heterogeneous environments of tropical forests. We will leverage four 10-hectare permanent plots from the GEO-TREES network, encompassing key Atlantic Forest types: cerradão, semideciduous forest, dense ombrophilous forest, and restinga. The methodology integrates detailed forest inventories (diameter, height, species composition) with terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) for high-resolution 3D structural modeling and airborne LiDAR (ALS) for landscape-scale mapping. These datasets will inform advanced allometric models and support BIOMASS product calibration at 4-hectare (200 × 200 m) resolution. Additionally, polarimetric P-band SAR data will be analyzed to characterize radar–forest structure interactions. Expected outcomes include: (1) forest type–specific allometric models, (2) quantitative validation of BIOMASS AGB products with target accuracy (RMSE ≤ 20% for AGB > 50 t ha⁻¹), and (3) improved understanding of radar signal responses in tropical forest canopies. The results will contribute to global carbon monitoring, REDD+ implementation, and the advancement of radar-based remote sensing, with outputs disseminated through peer-reviewed publications and collaboration with ESA.