Earthdata Forum

User Question from GEDI NASA Earthdata Webinar: Is it necessary to differentiate GEDI data from coverage beams vs. from full power beams?

GEDI coverage beams (beams 0000, 0001, 0010, and 0011) were designed to penetrate canopies of up to 95% canopy cover under “average” conditions. For this reason, it is recommended to preference the GEDI full power beams in cases of dense vegetation.

The LP DAAC is forwarding your inquiry to the subject matter expert for assistance.

What determines what beams to use and do both type of beam contain different information?

Hi @chidi_mma I have forwarded your question onto our SDLC team. We will post when we have a response.

@chidi_mma ,

If you haven’t already, I’d encourage you to read the GEDI manuscript written by Ralph Dubayah and others (2020) - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.srs.2020.100002. That may help with some of your questions.
What GEDI beams (power vs coverage) you decide to use is dependent on your research requirements. The data for each beam contains the same type of information, but depending on the local conditions (e.g., whether the observation was during the day or night, the density of the canopy, etc.) the difference between the power and coverage beams may show differences in their accuracies. Each shot contains its own set of QA information, so you can filter poor observations out up front. There are python tutorials that show how to do this (https://github.com/nasa/GEDI-Data-Resources). Following that, you’ll need to make some determinations as to whether the remaining observations are sufficient for your research needs using guidance from the previous manuscript and others (e.g., https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14132969 ).