New SALCA team member

The end of September saw an new addition to the SALCA team in the shape of a NERC-funded PhD student, Lucy Walker. With a background in geography, GIS, and ecology, Lucy will be investigating the use and application of SALCA for the study of forest carbon dynamics over the next 3 years, under the supervision of Mark Danson and Neil Entwistle at the University of Salford. Since starting in Salford, Lucy has been working on a range of preliminary experiments, as well as getting to grips with the data processing side of things! One of the ongoing experiments, investigating the signal measured by SALCA as trees dry out, began in December - with a festive edge!

Festive laser scanning

 

SALCA team goes to Silvilaser

September brought a trip to North America for the SALCA team. Rachel attended the ForestSAT 2012 conference in Corvallis, Oregon and the whole team was present at Silvilaser 2012 in Vancouver with a presentation providing an overview of the SALCA work and a more focussed poster on leaf moisture measurements. 

Silvilaser also brought the opportunity to learn more about SALCA’s American cousin, DWEL. The DWEL system, being developed by Alan Strahler at Boston University, shares some of the characteristics of SALCA, including dual near- and short -wave infrared lasers, but also has some important differences, opening the door for some interesting comparisons in the future. Silvilaser also brought the inaugural meeting of TLSIIG, the Terrestrial Laser Scanning International Interest Group, organised by Alan. The meeting raised some great possibilities for future activities, including instrument intercomparisons and data sharing. 

To top off a great trip, Mark and Rachel also found time for some rock climbing just up the road in Squamish.