Wither Radar Global Mapping of the Tropical Forest: new avenues from the TREES ERS-1 Central Africa Mosaic.

    F. De Grandi (1), J.P. Malingreau (1), M. Leysen (1),
     M. Simmard (1, 2), P. Mayaux (1)

  1)              European Commission Joint Research Center
     Space Applications Institute Monitoring Tropical Vegetation Unit TP 440
            21020 Ispra (VA) Italy
  Phone: +39 332 789823 Fax: +39 332 789073 Email: gianfranco.degrandi@jrc.it

  2)   Centre de Recherche en Geomatique, Universite' Laval, Quebec, CANADA

  The TREES ERS-1 Central Africa mosaic project CAMP has set the ground
  for an entirely new perspective in radar remote sensing for the study
  of large scale problems of the earth ecosystem. It was indeed the first
  attempt in the context of tropical forest monitoring to bring a
  high resolution microwave sensor from the role of gap filler or
  spatially limited hot spot analysis to the role of global mapping of an
  entire bio-geographical domain.

  The project was started in 1995 by the MTV unit (Monitoring Tropical
  Vegetation) of the European Commission DG JRC Space Applications
  Institute; the core of the activity consists of the assemblage of more
  than 400 ERS-1 images covering the whole Central African tropical belt.
  So far the potential of this approach was demonstrated unequivocally in
  terms of thematic information content, and the capability of mapping in
  a short time, on demand and in all weather conditions a continental
  scale geographical domain.

  The CAMP success has also been the seed for many new initiatives within
  the TREES project R/D framework and at the international level. In this
  paper we will briefly summarize the main CAMP characteristics,
  highlighting some technical aspects related to radar science, and
  present some thematic results obtained so far in a number of studies
  which hinge around CAMP.

  Finally an overview of the evolution of the project and of the new
  perspectives opened up by this approach will be given. This will entail
  initiatives closely coupled with the existing data set, such as the set
  up of a network of investigators to pursue thematic studies coordinated
  by the SAI MTV; and derivatives and expansions of the project, such as
  the introduction of multi-sensors and change analysis using new global
  data acquisitions over Central Africa, and threading of the project to
  other international initiatives, such as the NASDA Global Rain Forest
  Monitoring GRFM program.

Keywords: ESA European Space Agency - Agence spatiale europeenne, observation de la terre, earth observation, satellite remote sensing, teledetection, geophysique, altimetrie, radar, chimique atmospherique, geophysics, altimetry, radar, atmospheric chemistry