In Gabon, West Africa, the forest cover spans 210,000 square kilometres, or 70 percent of the total land area. It is hard for field researchers to get an overview of the situation and the frequent cloud cover in the tropics hinders observations from the air. Researchers at the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena are studying images acquired by ther German Aerospace Center’s (DLR) TerraSAR-X radar satellite, as part of their contribution to the United Nations’ Global Forest Resources Assessment. The satellite’s radar imaging is unaffected by cloud cover or the time of day. Read More
