Results from the Spring 2022 Tree Height and Land Cover Intensive Observation Period

“The GLOBE Observer tree observations essentially let people all over the world measure tree heights and give us that information where we can't go into every single forest ourselves as a small group of scientists.” -Dr. Laura Duncanson, Assistant Professor, University of Maryland and GEDI Team Member. Quote taken from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and NASA GLOBE Observer “Why Observe?: Tree Height” video .

As you may know, the Trees Around the GLOBE Student Research Campaign hosted the Spring 2022 Tree Height and Land Cover Intensive Observation Period (IOP) from 22 April though 22 May 2022. Although this was not an official NASA GLOBE Observer Challenge (like the Cloud Challenge), this IOP is a way to get a large amount of data over a short period of time and to amplify the idea that “Trees are Land Cover!”

About the Spring 2022 IOP

The Trees Around the GLOBE Student Research Campaign, GLOBE European Phenology Campaign, UNEP/GRID-Warsaw Centre (coordinator of GLOBE Poland), and the Urban Heat Island Effect - Surface Temperature Field Program, are excited that you many of you participated in the Spring 2022 GLOBE Tree Height and Land Cover Intensive Observation Period (IOP), from 22 April through 22 May 2022. Everyone, from students to educators to citizen scientists participated in the IOP by collecting Tree Height and Land Cover observations, using the GLOBE protocol observations and/or the NASA GLOBE Observer App. Your observations added significantly to the GLOBE database and provided vital data for GLOBE and beyond and everyone who participated in the Spring 2022 Tree Height and Land Cover IOP will receive a cool digital badge (see URL below).

In 2019, NASA and UNEP signed an agreement to work together on GLOBE and UNEP activities including collaboration on environmental education, citizen science and environmental data collection and distribution. The Spring 2022 IOP was led by the Trees Around the GLOBE Student Research Campaign and aligned to the GLOBE European Phenology 2022 Spring Tree Campaign, the 25th anniversary of GLOBE Poland, and the 50th anniversary of the United Nations Environmental Programme. The IOP also paralleled the 50th anniversary of the NASA-USGS Landsat Program, with its 50 years of remote sensing Earth observations, as well as several NASA missions and instruments such as the Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat-2) Mission, the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) Instrument, and the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Mission. 

The Final Observation Numbers:

Final numbers of GLOBE tree height and land cover observations for the Spring 2022 Tree Height and Land Cover Intensive Observation Period

As you can see in the graphic above, the IOP has resulted in a great amount of tree height and land cover data coming in from all over the world. For the IOP, participants:

• Safely took many tree height and land cover observations;
• Took observations of tree height and land cover observations at the same location because “Trees are Land Cover.” This allowed for a much more robust data set for student and professional researchers to potentially use when researching a particular environment.
• Encouraged their family, friends, and colleagues, from around the GLOBE, to take tree height and land cover observations.

As the lead of the Trees Around the GLOBE Student Research Campaign, my goal was to have 2,000+ tree height observations from 25+ GLOBE countries and 500+ land cover observations from 20+ GLOBE countries. Looking at the graphic above, there were 2,564 tree height observations from 983 locations in 26 GLOBE countries and 405 land cover observations from 215 locations in 16 GLOBE countries. These are great numbers!

You can learn more about the Spring 2022 Tree Height and Land Cover IOP and download your Spring 2020 IOP Participant badge on the Trees Around the GLOBE campaign page.

Spring 2022 Tree Height and Land Cover Intensive Observation Period (IOP) digital badge.

Thank you all!

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Brian Campbell (NASA Wallops/GST) is a NASA Senior Earth Science Outreach Specialist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center’s Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Virginia, USA. Brian is also the Trees Around the GLOBE Student Research Campaign Lead and the Trees Science Lead for the NASA GLOBE Observer citizen science program. Brian works with local to international students, educators, citizen scientists, and researchers in over 100 countries.
 

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