Satellite derived / Earth Observation data is becoming an increasingly important tool in global estimations of forest carbon stocks and with the development of the carbon trading market, such information can have significant political impact and commercial value.

To derive such data at a suitable scale requires combining and processing a time series of multiple datasets potentially derived from different instruments using multiple techniques. These processes can lead to increased uncertainty about the quality of any derived carbon estimates. As such there is a critical need for assessments to be made about the quality of these estimates by examining the uncertainty of each stage of the processing chain.

This workshop will bring together all interested parties to highlight and discuss the issue of quality for carbon estimates. The morning sessions will focus on the political and commercial impact of the issue whereas the afternoon session will focus on technical solutions to the issue.

The workshop will also showcase two current projects which are attempting to provide such quality assessments, specifically the TSB funded Trustable Data for Carbon, Science and Finance (TruDAT) and the Satellite Applications Catapult funded Amazonas project. TruDAT is focusing of examining impacts on data quality and uncertainties at each step in the processing chain, whereas Amazonas is collating multiple EO datasets to provide a useable carbon auditing service for a large test area - in this case the Amazon Forest. Both these projects are using the ISIC CEMS facility to provide the data storage, processing and data dissemination infrastructure.

The workshop will include demonstrations showing how both TruDAT and Amazonas will work in practice and how they can potentially be incorporated into a full-scale carbon auditing service.

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