Vegetation height and cover fraction between 60° S and 60° N from ICESat GLAS data

First paper to provide an estimate of vegetation height from a satellite based laser instrument for the entire land surface between 60 S and 60 N. The data can be used in climate models and ecological models to calculate the atmospheric turbulence, biomass and carbon stored in vegetation. The current dataset is a vast improvement over older specifications that provide an average estimate of vegetation height per land-cover class and have much less spatial detail and other recent data sets that show vegetation height for trees only. Compared to the latter, estimates in the present paper are more realisti