Plenary session

The forest-land use carbon source is still the major area of uncertainty in determining the global carbon budget. Methods to map forest and non-forest areas with precision using optical remote sensing in the tropical world is extremely difficult due to cloud cover. Time series satellite derived radar data provide the opportunity to map forest change and forest degradation in a consistent and quantifiable manner for input into forest carbon assessment models. Recent work with GEOSAR an airborne radar dataset has resulted in biomass estimations being retrieved directly from multi-band X and P band interferometric (height) and polarimetric (class) information. While the methods still need verification using ground based estimates of biomass, the potential exists to map biomass and greatly assist in the estimation of carbon sequestration and carbon emissions in tropical regions.