SCIENCE
OBJECTIVES

EDGE is designed to meet objectives for two Decadal Survey Targeted Observables: Terrestrial Ecosystem Structure & Ice Elevation

GOAL

Understand how the 3D structure of terrestrial ecosystems and the surface topography of glaciers, ice sheets and sea ice are changing in response to climate and human activity.

Terrestrial Ecosystem Structure

SO1: Quantify how the 3D vegetation structure and aboveground biomass of Earth’s wooded ecosystems has changed in response to natural and anthropogenic disturbances

SO2: Quantify how 3D vegetation structure and surface topography are related to habitat suitability and biodiversity for the Earth’s wooded ecosystems

SO3: Quantify woody vegetation carbon fluxes and sequestration potential in response to land use and climate change

Image

Earth's wooded ecosystems are shifting in response to land use and climate change, but there are large and inconsistent uncertainties on their carbon stocks and fluxes. EDGE quantifies 30 canopy structure and AGB at sufficient spatial resolution to capture the heterogeneity of carbon stocks and attribute fluxes to disturbance drivers. 

[/cs_column][/cs_row]

Ice Elevation

SO4: Quantify surface topography and short-term change of land ice at the spatial scale of features that are signatures of mass change processes in dynamic regions

SO5: Quantify freeboard, floe size and roughness of sea ice at the spatial scales of individual floes including in the marginal ice zone, and at the length scale of surface features of landfast ice.

SO6: Develop a high resolution Ice Elevation baseline reference for prior and following radar and laser altimetry missions to enable a record of decadal change in dynamic edges of the cryosphere

Image

EDGE provides a new dynamic snapshot of IE over 2 years by mapping features that are signatures of processes driving land ice and sea ice change at relevant spatial scales and tracking their short-term evolution.