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Description
The Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) mission aims to characterize ecosystem structure and dynamics to enable radically improved quantification and understanding of the Earth’s carbon cycle and biodiversity. The GEDI instrument produces high resolution laser ranging observations of the 3-dimensional structure of the Earth. GEDI is attached to the International Space Station (ISS) and collects data globally between 51.6° N and 51.6° S latitudes at the highest resolution and densest sampling of any light detection and ranging (lidar) instrument in orbit to date. Each GEDI Version 2 granule encompasses one-fourth of an ISS orbit and includes georeferenced metadata to allow for spatial querying and subsetting.
The GEDI instrument was removed from the ISS and placed into storage on March 17, 2023. No data were acquired during the hibernation period from March 17, 2023, to April 24, 2024. GEDI has since been reinstalled on the ISS and resumed operations as of April 26, 2024.
The purpose of the GEDI Level 2A Geolocated Elevation and Height Metrics product (GEDI02_A) is to provide waveform interpretation and extracted products from each GEDI01_B received waveform, including ground elevation, canopy top height, and relative height (RH) metrics. The methodology for generating the GEDI02_A product datasets is adapted from the Land, Vegetation, and Ice Sensor (LVIS) algorithm. The GEDI02_A product is provided in HDF5 format and has a spatial resolution (average footprint) of 25 meters.
The GEDI02_A data product contains 156 layers for each of the eight beams, including ground elevation, canopy top height, relative return energy metrics (e.g., canopy vertical structure), and many other interpreted products from the return waveforms. Additional information for the layers can be found in the GEDI Level 2A Dictionary.
Known Issues
Data acquisition gaps: GEDI data acquisitions were suspended on December 19, 2019 (2019 Day 353) and resumed on January 8, 2020 (2020 Day 8).
Incorrect Reference Ground Track (RGT) number in the filename for select GEDI files: GEDI Science Data Products for six orbits on August 7, 2020, and November 12, 2021, had the incorrect RGT number in the filename. There is no impact to the science data, but users should reference this document for the correct RGT numbers.
Known Issues: Section 8 of the User Guide provides additional information on known issues.
Version Description
The following changes and improvements were implemented for GEDI Version 2 data products: (1) Reduced granule size from one full ISS orbit (~7.99 GB) to four segments per orbit (~2.00 GB), (2) Modified file name to include segment number and dataset version, (3) Improved geolocation for orbital segments, (4) Added elevation from the SRTM digital elevation model for comparison, (5) Modified the method to predict an optimum algorithm setting group per laser shot, (6) Added additional land cover datasets related to phenology, urban infrastructure, and water persistence, (7) Added selected_mode_flag dataset to root beam group using selected algorithm, and (8) Removed shots when the laser is not firing.
Citation is critically important for dataset documentation and discovery. This dataset is openly shared, without restriction, in accordance with the EOSDIS Data Use and Citation Guidance.
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Dubayah, R., Hofton, M., Blair, J., Armston, J., Tang, H., & Luthcke, S. (2021). GEDI L2A Elevation and Height Metrics Data Global Footprint Level V002 [Data set]. NASA Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center. https://doi.org/10.5067/GEDI/GEDI02_A.002 Date Accessed: 2026-05-15
Dubayah, Ralph, Michelle Hofton, James Blair, John Armston, Hao Tang, and Scott Luthcke. “GEDI L2A Elevation and Height Metrics Data Global Footprint Level V002.” NASA Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center, 2021. doi:10.5067/GEDI/GEDI02_A.002. Date Accessed: 2026-05-15
Dubayah, Ralph, et al. GEDI L2A Elevation and Height Metrics Data Global Footprint Level V002. NASA Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center, 2021, doi:10.5067/GEDI/GEDI02_A.002. Date Accessed: 2026-05-15
The file name begins with the Product Short Name (GEDI02_A), followed by the Julian Date and Time of Acquisition designated as YYYYDDDHHMMSS (2024333190440), the Orbit Number starting with the letter O (O33777), the Sub-Orbit Granule Number (03), Track Number (T03689), the Positioning and Pointing Determination System type where 00 is predict, 01 rapid, 02 and higher is final (02), the Product Generation Executables Version (004), the Granule Production Version (02), the Version Number (V002), and the Data Format (h5).
The table below lists the variables contained within a single granule for this
dataset. Variables often contain observed or derived geophysical measurements
collected from a variety of sources, including remote sensing instruments on
satellite and airborne platforms, field campaigns, in situ measurements, and
model outputs. The terms variable, parameter, scientific data set, layer, and band
have been used across NASA’s Earth science disciplines; however, variable is the
designated nomenclature in NASA’s Common Metadata Repository (CMR).
Variable metadata attributes such as Name, Description, Units, Data Type, Fill
Value, Valid Range, and Scale Factor allow users to efficiently process and analyze
the data. The full range of attributes may not be applicable to all variables.
Additional information on variable attributes is typically available in the data,
user guide, and/or other product documentation.
For questions on a specific variable, please use the Earthdata Forum.
If use_fixed_threshold=0, this is the noise stddev multiplier used to detect the lowest elevation signal. If use_fixed_threshold is non_zero, use the value as the threshold
If use_fixed_threshold=0, this is the noise stddev multiplier used to detect the highest elevation signal. If use_fixed_threshold is non_zero, use the value as the threshold
If =0, then use values in Front_Threshold and Back_Threshold as the noise stddev multipliers used to detect the highest and lowest elevation returns. If use_fixed_threshold is non_zero, use the value in Front_Threshold and Back_Threshold as the threshold value (not as a multiplier for stddev).
N/A
int32
N/A
0 to 1
N/A
N/A
/BEAM0000/rx_processing_a2/back_threshold
threshold used to detect lowest elevation return energy
counts
float32
N/A
0 to 4096
N/A
N/A
/BEAM0000/rx_processing_a2/botloc
waveform sample location of lowest detected return energy relative to bin0 of waveform
counts
float32
N/A
0 to 1420
N/A
N/A
/BEAM0000/rx_processing_a2/botloc_amp
amplitude at lowest detected energy return
counts
float32
N/A
0 to 4096
N/A
N/A
/BEAM0000/rx_processing_a2/energy_sm
total energy of smoothed waveform
counts
float32
N/A
-1000 to 100000
N/A
N/A
/BEAM0000/rx_processing_a2/front_threshold
threshold used to detect highest elevation return energy
counts
float32
N/A
0 to 4096
N/A
N/A
/BEAM0000/rx_processing_a2/lastmodeenergy
energy in lowest detected mode
counts
float32
N/A
-1000 to 100000
N/A
N/A
/BEAM0000/rx_processing_a2/mean
mean noise level used in algorithm
counts
float32
N/A
0 to 4096
N/A
N/A
/BEAM0000/rx_processing_a2/mean_sm
mean noise level after smoothing
counts
float32
N/A
0 to 4096
N/A
N/A
/BEAM0000/rx_processing_a2/min_detection_energy
integrated area of the computed minimally-detectable gaussian