Date: April 16, 1997

Writer: Dean McFall, (407) 823-2504

UCF BIOLOGIST JOINS NASA SATELLITE PROJECT.

FROM KISSIMMEE TO ORBIT, UCF EXPERTISE WILL HELP ACCURATELY MEASURE EARTHS PLANT LIFE.

Laser measurements of Central Florida woodlands are paving the way to a clearer, and more accurate, knowledge of the Earths biomass, and of the danger of a climate change. University of Central Florida Biologist John Weishampel is working with a new remote sensing laser technology to measure the height of plants from an airplane, and it has been tested over the Disney Wilderness Preserve and at other spots around the nation.

Now, he will be expanding his horizons, a lot. As part of NASAs Mission to Planet Earth, the lasers should go into orbit in the Spring of 2000, and measure plant mass from the southern reaches of Argentinas pampas to the northern stretches of Canada, where forests yield to tundra. Accurate biomass data is needed for scientists to better assess the Earths vulnerability to warming. The Earths temperature has risen in modern times, perhaps due to the worlds increasing use of fossil fuels and the loss of forests, which absorb the so called greenhouse gases and convert them to oxygen.

Current biomass data amounts to little more than very educated guesses, based on spot measurements around the world, and satellite photographs of the earths vegetation. Weishampel says the satellite based laser mapping will yield data that are ten times more accurate than present methods, To predict changes brought on by heavy use of fossil fuels and the uprooting of the worlds forests, there is no substitute for validated information on the Earths biomass.

Weishampel joined the UCF Biology Department in the fall of 1995. He earned an undergraduate degree in Biology at Duke University, and masters and doctoral degrees at the University of Virginia. Now, as part of the $60 million dollar Vegetation Canopy Lidar (VCL) project, Weishampel will be on a team that includes scientists and engineers from the University of Maryland, NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center, the University of Missouri, and three corporations from Virginia and Maryland.

He and his students are busy in their lab on the UCF campus analyzing the readings collected in flights over woodlands in Kissimmee, Pennsylvania, NorthCarolina and Washington. A laser scans the trees, and at the same time a video tape is made of the site. The measurements are so accurate tree branch patterns can be studied. This will be potentially useful for other scientists conducting habitat studies.

The scanners can even provide data on the shape and condition of trees. Ecologists studying the worlds carbon cycle can use that information, too. The world wide scope of the two year mapping project dwarfs his previous experience, Weishampel admits, but the gigabytes of measurements will be invaluable to scientists working to predict the worlds climatic future.

Video avails:

Tape shot from the airplane during the flyovers at the same time the laser is scanning the ground.
Simultaneous ground pictures of the target areas.
The analysis process in the lab. Students use computers to analyze data. Graphs and charts showing results of flyover in central Florida.
Graphic explaining the process.
A drawing of the proposed satellite.
The existing laser scanner device.

Tie in:

Several schools in the Orange/Seminole/Brevard/Volusa county area are participating in a project called GLOBE. Students take individual measurements of
plants and climate, and enter the data on Internet Maps. Their measurements are similar to the ones which will be taken by satellite.
Some of the schools are: Cape View Elementary, Cape Canaveral; Domerich Elementary, Orlando; Dream Lake Elementary, Apopka; Eau Gallie High School, Melbourne; Enterprise Elementary, Cocoa; Evans 9th Grade Center, Orlando; Galaxy

Middle School, Deltona; Ivey Lane Elementary, Orlando; Mainland High, Daytona; Meadowlane Elementary, West Melbourne; Mollie E. Ray Elementary,
Orlando; Oak Hill, Orlando; Pine Hills Elementary Orlando; Rock Lake Middle, Longwood; Sanford Middle School, Sanford; Southwest Middle School, Orlando; Stenstrom Elementary, Orlando; and Ventura Elementary, Orlando. Check them at http: //globe.fsl.noaa.gov/.

CONTACTS: DEAN MC FALL, 823 2504 or JERRY KLEIN, 823 2730, U.C.F. PUBLIC RELATIONS. Source