FoScenes: A high-fidelity, large-scale 3D forest plant area density product derived from open-access airborne lidar data

The accurate three-dimensional (3D) distribution of plant area density (PAD) within forests is crucial for understanding canopy structure and provides essential scene inputs for 3D Radiative Transfer Models (RTMs) to facilitate remote sensing interpretation. However, current lidar-based voxelization methods that estimate detailed PAD distributions often cover limited areas, constraining their applications in conducting broad forest studies and interpreting Earth Observation Satellite (EOS) data of various scales and resolutions. To address this, we developed the Large-Scale Path Volume Leaf Area Density (LS-PVlad), a novel forest 3D reconstruction workflow capable of producing extensive high-resolution 3D voxelized forest scenes (up to 100 km 2 with ≤2 m voxel size) from worldwide open-access airborne lidar scanning (ALS) data. By applying LS-PVlad to the ALS data acquired during the extensive NASA Goddard's LiDAR, Hyperspectral & Thermal Imager (G-LiHT) campaigns, we developed the first release of FoScenes—a high-fidelity PAD product comprising 40 seamless scenes from 28 diverse forest sites, with individual area ranging from ∼50 to ∼11,000 ha. The leaf area estimates of LS-PVlad have been validated by two-year field-measured leaf area index (LAI) from litter collection (best RMSE = 0.35 m 2 /m 2 ) and digital hemispherical photography (DHP) images (RMSE = 0.46 m 2 /m 2 ) across multiple plots at a deciduous forest site. Additionally, a broad comparison between FoScenes and MODIS plant/leaf area index product demonstrates high consistency (R 2 = 0.70, RMSE = 0.86 m 2 /m 2 ). By providing multi-dimensional forest characterizations, FoScenes enables temporal insights into structure dynamics. Its integration with the discrete anisotropic radiative transfer (DART) model underscores the potential of FoScenes for extensive 3D RTM applications at various scales. • We developed a large-scale ALS-data-driven 3D forest reconstruction workflow. • FoScenes product consists of 40 various forest scenes derived from NASA G-LiHT data. • The estimated leaf/plant area index strongly aligns with field data and EOS products. • FoScenes captures temporal structure variation by multi-dimensional characterization. • FoScenes can be integrated into DART for realistic simulations at varied scales.