The airborne sensor measures areas varying from one to 70 meters in diameter.
Swath width is approximately one-eighth of the aboveground altitude .
Scientists working to find out how much carbon is stored in the world's forests have a new remote sensing tool that allows them to do intricate analysis of the forest canopy. With the help of the Laser Vegetation Imaging Sensor, developed by Goddard Space Flight Center engineer Bryan Blair, scientists can take traditional imaging data beyond how much land is covered by forests. The new sensor estimates tree canopy height, the amount of leaves and branches in a vertical column, and even the underlying topography of the land surface. It will also allow us to look at canopies over a large scale instead of taking scattered measurements here and there. The aboveground biomass of a tree is closely related to its height, and about 50 percent of a tree's biomass is made up of carbon.