NASA satellites pinged the surface of the Earth with 2.5 million
carefully positioned laser pulses to measure the height of the
world's forests. The map above shows the peak height of the
canopy with a spatial resolution of 0.6 miles. The tropics as
you might expect, have a high canopy height with large areas of
red for South America, south-central Africa, Indonesia, and
Papua New Guinea. (Perhaps California redwoods are also
appearing red.) Note the deserts of Africa and Australia have an
absence of trees. NASA scientists hope the map will assist in
estimating the carbon sinks formed by the forests. It will also
be a valuable record for measuring climate change.