Abstract
Advance Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflectance Radiometer (ASTER) on-board the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA's) Terra satellite can generate Digital Elevation Model (DEM) image per 16 days. In this study, three ASTER DEM images (L3A01) acquired before and after leaf fall were used to evaluate the potential for tree height estimation. These three images were acquired on September 17, October 3, and November 4, in 2005, respectively. The potential for tree height estimation was evaluated by comparing the difference DEM images derived from these ASTER DEM images and Laser scanner data acquired on June 25, 2005. The following results were obtained ; (a) the difference DEM Images were not able to estimate precise tree height, on the other hand, (b) it was possible to discriminate deciduous tree areas from the areas that do not change the surface height. It can be concluded that difference DEM images are not useful for estimating tree height, whereas it has the potential to discriminate deciduous tree areas from those vegetation areas with similar spectral characteristics such as highly dense grassland.
