Field Validation of Biomass Retrieved from Landsat for Rangeland Assessment and Monitoring

Spatial measures of terrestrial biomass that are accurate and repeatable are important to monitoring landscape condition and modeling productivity in the world’s grassland and savanna (i.e., rangeland) ecosystems. Remote sensing offers potential to characterize seasonal changes in biomass in a consistent and non-destructive manner. A high degree of structural and spatial heterogeneity [1] and inter-annual variability in production [2] render field datasets for validating remotely sensed estimates of biomass logistically inaccessible in many rangelands.