New GEDI mission will monitor Earth’s forests in high resolution

Today’s Video of the Day comes from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and features a look at a new mission aimed at monitoring Earth’s forests in high resolution and 3D.

The new GEDI instrument, which of course rhymes with Jedi, is a spaceborne laser that will sit perched on the exterior of the International Space Station. It will monitor Earth’s tropical and temperate forests and is expected to launch later this year.

“Scientists have been planning for decades to get comprehensive information about the structure of forests from space to deepen our understanding of how this structure impacts carbon resources and biodiversity across large regions and even globally, as well as a host of other science issues,” said Ralph Dubayah, GEDI principal investigator and a professor at the University of Maryland. “This is why seeing the instrument built and racing toward launch is so exciting.”

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By Rory Arnold, Earth.com Staff Writer

Video Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/LK Ward