Warning to forest destroyers: this scientist will catch you.
GEOG Professor Matthew Hansen's research on using satellite data to produce the first global, high-resolution maps of where trees are growing and disappearing is highlighted in Nature's News Feature.
Hansen is among the world's foremost forest sentries. In 2013, he and his colleagues used satellite data to produce the first global, high-resolution maps of where trees are growing and disappearing. Those images revealed some large-scale patterns for the first time, such as that Indonesia had nearly equalled Brazil as the country with the world's highest rate of tropical deforestation. Since then, his team has refined its methods and can now reveal the loss of trees within days.
