In 2018, NASA launched the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI), a $150 million project from the International Space Station (ISS) designed to provide the first-ever comprehensive, 3D view into the role of the world’s forests. Thus far, the GEDI has collected valuable data regarding the effects of climate change on the carbon cycle. Researchers are finding that more carbon is stored in the Earth’s forests than previously thought, and future findings could have a critical role in monitoring the status of international deforestation commitments.

The mission is scheduled to end in early 2023. But the full extent of the GEDI’s potential is yet to be realized, causing forestry experts and GEDI researchers at the University of Maryland to pursue an extension from NASA.

Why This Matters

At COP26, over 100 countries representing 85% of the world’s forests pledged to “halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030.” However, without a common scientific understanding, analyzing the efficacy of land-use commitments is impossible. As IPPC author and remote sensing expert, Inge Jonckheere told the Guardian, “every country can come up with its own definition of a forest. Countries can just fill in numbers and then everybody has to take them as the truth. But with satellites, we can check them.”

The Amazon’s Tipping Point

The implications of GEDI data are endless when it comes to the Amazon rainforest. Currently, the world’s largest terrestrial carbon sink sits at a tipping point, mainly due to prolonged deforestation. Researchers say that it is increasingly at risk of becoming a dry savannah. According to Fred Stolle, deputy director of the Forests Program at the World Resources Institute, GEDI data could “allow us to find important areas of forest and say: do not touch this.”

Reversing deforestation in the Amazon and elsewhere will require targeted, deliberate, and prolonged efforts. “The biggest uncertainty we have in terms of atmospheric CO2 concentrations driving climate change is the balance between deforestation and subsequent regrowth,” said University of Maryland professor Ralph Dubayah. “GEDI is helping us address that. If you want to plant a trillion trees, go ahead. But you have to know what kind of impact that’s going to have.