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Neuenschwander: We are looking at a profile of

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ICESat-2 data over northern Botswana, which is described as a

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semi-arid savanna woodland. In this profile the vegetation is

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dominated by shrub mopani, which is typically in the two to three meter

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range. And there’s also some mopani and acacia trees that typically

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are in the four to six meter height range.

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Something that scientists need to understand and quantify is where carbon is being

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taken up and where it is already being stored. Because much

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of the effort to mapping global biomass has been really focused in the tropics

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where the trees are large and the biomass is high, many of these savanna

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and woodland ecosystems tend to get neglected or are poorly

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characterized in global carbon accounting efforts. This capability

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to determine vegetation height should help reduce the uncertainty in

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global biomass estimates.