GEDI L2B Canopy Cover and Vertical Profile Metrics Data Global Footprint Level V003

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 3 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 was re-instated on the ISS and resumed operations as of April 26, 2024.

The GEDI Level 2B Canopy Cover and Vertical Profile Metrics product (GEDI02_B) extracts biophysical metrics from each GEDI waveform. These metrics are based on the directional gap probability profile derived from the L1B waveform. Metrics provided include canopy cover, Plant Area Index (PAI), Plant Area Volume Density (PAVD), and Foliage Height Diversity (FHD). The GEDI02_B product is provided in HDF5 format and has a spatial resolution (average footprint) of 25 meters.

The GEDI02_B data product contains 209 layers/variables for each of the eight-beam ground transects (or laser footprints located on the land surface). Variables provided include precise latitude, longitude, elevation, height, canopy cover, and vertical profile metrics. Additional information for the variables can be found in the GEDI Level 2B Data 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).
  • Known Issues: Section 8 of the User Guide provides additional information on known issues.

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field Value
Maintainer Earthdata Forum
Last Updated October 20, 2026, 11:16 (UTC)
Created August 11, 2026, 01:03 (UTC)
Identifier 10.5067/GEDI/GEDI02_B.003
Modified 2026-10-15T20:12:07Z
Theme {"Earth Science"}
accessLevel public
bureauCode {026:00}
catalog_conformsTo https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
harvest_object_id 7ba27785-f7d1-4793-bbd9-f075594c5e53
harvest_source_id b99e41c6-fe79-4c19-bbc3-9b6c8111bfac
harvest_source_title Science Discovery Engine
license https://www.usa.gov/government-works
programCode {026:000}
publisher LP DAAC;NASA/GSFC/GEDI
resource-type Dataset
source_datajson_identifier true
source_hash e76b3a7d97ed1ac0203d0a3a831508dccf3ef1692890b22fc8a06445d158483c
source_schema_version 1.1
spatial ["CARTESIAN", [{"NorthBoundingCoordinate": 54, "WestBoundingCoordinate": -180, "EastBoundingCoordinate": 180, "SouthBoundingCoordinate": -54}]]
temporal 2019-04-04/2026-10-15