Warra Trip - Success!

After a week of hard work trekking around the Tasmanian Warra Forests and some minor technical issues early in the week, we are very happy with all the TLS data that we collected from DWEL. I'm currently still processing all the data, but a first glance over it looks pretty good.
The rest of the science campaign also went well and luckily Peter Scarth has kept his awesome blog updated with the goings on of each day, have a look at everything we got up to http://earth.postach.io/
This GoPro panorama was taken at the 'tame' Flux tower site. Compared to the rest of the sites, this one was nice and easy to move around while carrying DWEL.


tern warra auscover cal / val trip - wtwr180 dwel scan by mickschaef13 on photosynth

Warra - DWEL back on track

After a few recurring technical issues all week, and completely dismantling DWEL, we finally have some scans of the beautiful Tasmanian Warra forest. There is some very rugged patches of forest down here, lots of ferns and very tall Eucalypts, all that thrown in with plenty of massive, decaying, fallen logs makes for fun times.
So far we've collected plenty of scans with both DWEL and Riegl as well as plant structural measurements, leaf collections using a tree climber and a shooter and UAV imeragy as well. Its shaping up to be a very good week.

Figure 1 - The trees are tall down here in Tasmania. That's an 80 m tall Flux tower that's just above the canopy!

   Figure 2 - DWEL having fun in the Warra ferns.

Figure 3 - Peter and Matt letting the Riegl TLS work its magic.

Figure 4 - The first scan from DWEL for the trip. This is an image from the 1556nm laser, unfiltered, but it looks good. Plenty more scans to come!

DWEL Headed to the Warra

DWEL is currently in transit between Canberra and Hobart, getting ready for a big week of scanning in Tasmania (see the update on the DWEL Scans Map tab).
The TERN AusCover team are heading down to the TERN Warra Supersite for a week of Cal / Val activities including Airborne Hyperspectral measures, DBH, point intercept surveys, LAI, TLS and other tree structural measurements.
On the TLS side of things, both the DWEL and Riegl VZ400 will be in action scanning a variety of plots in the Tall Eucalypt Forest. I will keep the updates coming as the week of scanning (2nd - 6th Feb) progresses!

DWEL in the TERN e-Newsletter

DWEL has recently featured in the TERN e-Newsletter. The article can be seen here:
An Echidna from Boston

DWEL & Zebedee at Canberra Arboretum

A new collaborative project between CSIRO and the Australian National University has launched at the National Arboretum Canberra. The project aims to use DWEL and Zebedee (a CSIRO handheld laser scanner) to monitor the growth, plant morphology, and health of some of the 94 small 'forests' that are planted in the arboretum. The arboretum is home to more than 48,000 trees including rare, endangered and symbolic trees from Australia and around the world. 

National Arboretum Location

Scanning at Tumbarumba

Our team from CSIRO recently we visited the TERN supersite at Tumbarumba in NSW to complete two days of scanning with DWEL. 
The Tumbarumba site is located in the Bago State forest in south eastern New South Wales. The forest is classified as wet sclerophyll, the dominant species is Eucalyptus delegatensis, and average tree height is 40 m. Elevation of the site is 1200 m and mean annual precipitation is 1000 mm. 
The mission at Tumbarumba was to scan 9 locations with DWEL (aka Super Echidna) that have been scanned using the original Echidna in previous years gone by. We were successfully able to locate all of the original scanning locations (even in the snow) and the scans were a huge success, a sample is displayed below.
While on-site, we also established a core 1 ha for TERN Supersites, a plot that will be completely inventoried, with tree DBH's, hemispherical photography, LAI and other vegetation structural measurements paving the way for potentially of many DWEL scanning trips to come.

Tumbarumba EE DWEL Scan

Tumbarumba SE GoPro Photosynth 


tern tumbarumba - dwel scan at the se corner by mickschaef13 on photosynth

DWEL and VegNet in the snow

The new DWEL 'Echidna' lidar scanning the snow covered landscape at the Tumbarumba Wet Eucalypt SuperSite in NSW; and abvoe: a sample scan from the echidna at the site (images courtesy of CSIRO / TERN's AusCover, Ozflux team of Michael Schaefer, Eva VanGorsel & Guy Byrne)

DWEL Scanning at Mulligan's Flat

Four small monitoring sites have been scanned using the DWEL at Mulligan's Flat nature reserve situated in north-eastern Gunghalin on the northern side of Canberra, adjacent to the ACT/NSW border. The four sites are the first to be scanned in Australia using the new Australian DWEL instrument. A first look at one of the scans is shown below as well as photo-panorama of the site.

Mulligan's Flat Site #2

Mulligan's Flat Site #2 Photosynth

mulligan's flat 2 by mickschaef13 on photosynth