 Calibrating Satellite Maps With Field Data for Improved Predictions of Forest BiomassPaul B. May and Andrew O. Finley Environmetrics, 2025, vol. 36, issue 1 Abstract: Spatially explicit quantification of forest biomass is important for forest‐health monitoring and carbon accounting. Direct field measurements of biomass are laborious and expensive, typically limiting their spatial and temporal sampling density and therefore the precision and resolution of the resulting inference. Satellites can provide biomass predictions at a far greater density, but these predictions are often biased relative to field measurements and exhibit heterogeneous errors. We developed and implemented a coregionalization model between sparse field measurements and a predictive satellite map to deliver improved predictions of biomass density at a 1 km2$$ {\mathrm{km}}^2 $$ resolution throughout the Pacific states of California, Oregon and Washington. The model accounts for zero‐inflation in the field measurements and the heterogeneous errors in the satellite predictions. A stochastic partial differential equation approach to spatial modeling is applied to handle the magnitude of the satellite data. The spatial detail rendered by the model is much finer than would be possible with the field measurements alone, and the model provides substantial noise‐filtering and bias‐correction to the satellite map. Date: 2025 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:envmet:v:36:y:2025:i:1:n:e2892 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from Access Statistics for this article More articles in Environmetrics from John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.