Lidar for observation of vegetation environment from International Space Station (ISS)/Japanese Experiment Module (JEM)-Exposed Facility (EF)

Most every aspect of our lives depends upon plants, trees and grasses, i.e. vegetation. Not only they make us relaxant, feed us, but also they absorb carbon dioxide, and provide us with oxygen. Therefore, it is very important to watch the spatial distribution of vegetation biomass and changes in biomass over time, representing invaluable information to improve present assessments and future projections of the terrestrial carbon cycle. This paper proposes an ISS-JEM-EF borne lidar for taking actively the range-resolved NDVI value using dual wavelength (660nm/1320nm) pulsed laser transmitters and to measure the canopy height simultaneously using an imaging detection system with a 2D array detector for information of vegetation biomass.