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ECVs / 
Global Products requiring Satellite Observations 
Fundamental Climate Data Records 
required for Product Generation 
(from past, current and future missions) 
• Technical support for “Reducing Emissions 
from Deforestation (REDD) 
fAPAR 
Maps of fAPAR 
VIS/NIR Imagery 
Sentlnel-2 
LAI 
Maps of LAI 
VIS/NIR Imagery 
Sentlnel-2 
Biomass 
Research towards global, above ground forest bio 
mass and forest biomass change 
L band/ P band SAR; 
Laser altimetry 
University Jena: 
• Regional biomass classification products In 
boreal areas (Siberia, China), derived from 
ERS Interferometry and of hyper-temporal 
analysis of ENVISAT-ASAR time series 
Fire Disturbance 
Burnt area, supplemented by active fire maps and fire 
radiated power 
VIS/NIR/SWIR/TIR moderate-resolution multi-spectral 
Imagery 
Sentlnel-2 and Sentlnel-3 
Soil Moisture 3 
Research towards global near-surface soil moisture 
map (up to 10cm soil depth) 
Active and passive microwave 
ESA’s SMOS mission is scheduled for launch in No 
vember 2009, starting observations of this emerging 
ECV. 
a Soil moisture is not listed as an ECV, but has been recognized in the GCOS implementation plan as 
an emerging ECV. 
4.7.1 Contributions of the GOFC-GOLD land cover project office 
The activities of Global Observation of Forest Cover and Land Dynamics (GOFC-GOLD 22 ), a 
technical panel of the GTOS aim towards an operational terrestrial observation system with 
the key issues being the continuity and consistency in observations within an integrated 
framework, combining in situ measurements with fine and coarse resolution satellite data. 
These efforts go along with standardizing land cover characterization and validation, and end 
to end international coordination. 
The GOFC-GOLD land cover project office hosted at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, 
Germany 23 (funded by ESA) supports UNFCCC activities in different areas concerning forest 
and land cover observations: 
22 http://www.fao.org/gtos/gofc-gold/ 
23 http://www.gofc-gold.uni-jena.de