Small-footprint, discrete-return lidar data were collected over the La Selva protected area in Costa Rica in 2009. The data include coverage of the lowest elevation TEAM vegetation plot at the Volcan Barva TEAM site as well as low-biomass secondary forests and plantations.

The lidar data were collected and provided to TEAM by Northrop Grumman Corporation, through the Global Climate Monitoring Systems and 3001 remote sensing division.

This data set contains land-use, canopy height, and aboveground carbon estimates derived from LiDAR data collected at La Selva Biological Station in Costa Rica in March 1998 and March 2005. The data are provided as GeoTIFFs (*.tif) of 100-m (1-ha) resolution. A look-up table is provided that relates modeled changes in height to changes in stand characteristics (including age and carbon content). The data were used to test the accuracy and scale-dependency of high-resolution predictions of vegetation dynamics and carbon flux by the Ecosystem Demography (ED). The ED model is an individual-based terrestrial ecosystem model that predicts both ecosystem structure and corresponding ecosystem fluxes from climate, soil, and land-use inputs.

This data set contains land-use, canopy height, and aboveground carbon estimates derived from LiDAR data collected at La Selva Biological Station in Costa Rica in March 1998 and March 2005. The data are provided as GeoTIFFs (*.tif) of 100-m (1-ha) resolution. A look-up table is provided that relates modeled changes in height to changes in stand characteristics (including age and carbon content). The data were used to test the accuracy and scale-dependency of high-resolution predictions of vegetation dynamics and carbon flux by the Ecosystem Demography (ED). The ED model is an individual-based terrestrial ecosystem model that predicts both ecosystem structure and corresponding ecosystem fluxes from climate, soil, and land-use inputs.

In 2024, the Costa Rican laser market was finally on the rise to reach $723K for the first time since 2021, thus ending a two-year declining trend. In general, consumption saw a relatively flat trend pattern. Over the period under review, the market reached the maximum level at $1.6M in 2015; however, from 2016 to 2024, consumption stood at a somewhat lower figure.

Costa Rica Exports of machine-tools operated by laser, ultrasonic, electron beam processes to Slovakia was US$4.28 Thousand during 2023, according to the United Nations COMTRADE database on international trade.

Tropical rainforest canopies, where stems and crowns reside, are hotspots of biological diversity, mediate the global biochemical processes and are the interface between organic nature and the atmosphere. Ecosystem functions such as growth, competition and mortality, depend on the spatial arrangement of tree crowns that varies significantly across forest types and disturbance gradients. The exact nature and function of tropical tree canopies are not well known. Field inventories often focus on measuring the horizontal component of the canopy (tree diameter and species identification) and rarely measure tree height or crown size. Remote sensing airborne lidar (light detection and ranging) is considered a complementary method to circumvent the difficulty of field techniques in measuring forest canopies, with recognized ability to estimate canopy height and vegetation vertical profiles. A recent lidar-based method (adaptive mean shift, AMS3D) shown improved capabilities to deal with the complexity of tropical forest and to provide spatial explicit measurements of crown morphology and packing by modeling individual trees.

Here, we report tree-level forest inventory (field and LiDAR) over nine 1 ha forest plots in the La Selva Biological Station, Costa Rica. The field inventory includes stem location (tree height > 10m), tree diameter, tree height and wood density. Crown radii measurements for a tree subsample (n=285) were used to derive local tree allometry. The lidar forest inventory includes the point clouds measurements over the 1 ha plots with an additional attribute to cluster the individual points into tree crowns. The lidar tree crowns were modeled to estimate tree location, tree height, crown depth, crown area, crown volume and crown surface. Additionally, we provide tree-level LiDAR forest inventory for 45360 plots (1 ha) distributed over old-growth, selectively-logged, secondary and swamp forests. The field inventories have been compared and show good agreement in terms of stem number density, size-frequency distributions (stem diameter, tree height), basal area and aboveground biomass.

Methods The methods used to derive the field and lidar forest inventory are described in

Clark DB, Ferraz A, Clark DA, Kellner JR, Letcher SG, Saatchi S (2019) Diversity, distribution and dynamics of large trees across an old-growth lowland tropical rain forest landscape. PLoS ONE 14(11): e0224896. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0224896

and

Ferraz A, Saatchi S, Longo M, Clark DB (2020) Tropical tree size-frequency distributions from airborne lidar. Ecological Applications

respectively.

In 2023, supplies from abroad of lasers, other than laser diodes decreased by -42.5% to 908 units, falling for the second year in a row after two years of growth.

The La Selva Biological Research Station contains over 1500 hectares of tropical wet forest in the Atlantic lowlands of Costa Rica, and has been extensively surveyed for ecological, hydrological, and topographical purposes. In March of 1998, the Laser Vegetation Imaging Sensor (LVIS), an airborne laser altimeter designed and developed at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, was used to map the station as part of the pre-launch validation activities of the Vegetation Canopy Lidar (VCL) project. VCL is a spaceborne mission designed to measure vegetation height and structure as well as ground topography with a vertical accuracy of 1 meter using 25 m-diameter footprints. From an altitude of 8 km, LVIS used 25 m footprints spaced 12 m apart across and along track, simultaneously simulating VCL measurements and mapping the 5 by 5 km area of La Selva. Elevation maps of both tree canopy and sub-canopy topography were produced using information contained in the return waveform which is digitally recorded by the LVIS instrument. The ability of the laser altimeter to penetrate dense forest canopies was tested and the accuracy of the sub-canopy topography measurements was assessed by comparing the laser-derived elevations with other available data sets. These data sets include: (1) approximately 3000 elevation points from a 1991 topographic survey of La Selva, (2) FLI-MAP airborne laser altimetry data with a vertical accuracy of 5 cm from fall 1997 overflights, (3) differential, kinematic GPS data, and (4) 90 m resolution Digital Elevation Models. Resulting digital terrain maps of the La Selva Biological Research Station and neighboring overflown terrain will be presented.

The primary data products are:

* Earth topography (bare ground with vegetation removed).
* Vertical structure of tree canopies.
* Biomass estimates and above ground carbon stocks.
* Surface roughness.
* Entropy or Information density of the surveyed surface 

Source: Rocchio, L E ; Hofton, M A; Dubayah, R; Blair, J B; Knox, R G. ,1998. Lidar Remote Sensing of Sub-Canopy Topography in a Tropical Wet Forest. AGU. Fall Meeting

Costa Rica Imports of machine-tools operated by laser, ultrasonic, electron beam processes from Costa Rica was US$191.05 Thousand during 2022, according to the United Nations COMTRADE database on international trade.

Statistics illustrates market overview of lasers, other than laser diodes in Costa Rica from 2007 to 2024.

Costa Rica Imports from United States of Machine-tools Operated By Laser, Ultrasonic, Electron Beam Processes was US$10.14 Million during 2023, according to the United Nations COMTRADE database on international trade.

Statistics illustrates prices of lasers, other than laser diodes in Costa Rica from 2007 to 2024.

Costa Rica Exports of machine-tools operated by laser, ultrasonic, electron beam processes to Israel was US$65 Thousand during 2011, according to the United Nations COMTRADE database on international trade.

NASA's Laser Vegetation Imaging Sensor (LVIS) has pioneered the use of waveform-based measurements since 1997. Images of sub-canopy topography, canopy height, canopy vertical structure and various parameters describing forest structure are routinely obtained using the system. In 2005, LVIS was used to image selected areas of Costa Rica, including Braulio Carillo National Park, La Selva Biological Station, the Turrialba area, Arenal volcano, and Palo Verde Biological Station.

The primary data products are:

* Earth topography (bare ground with vegetation removed).
* Vertical structure of tree canopies.
* Biomass estimates and above ground carbon stocks.
* Surface roughness.
* Entropy or Information density of the surveyed surface

lidar data for each CARBONO field plotLidar data collected at La Selva Biological Station, Costa Rica, in September and October 2009 using the Optech 3100EA sensor. A separate file is included for lidar data over each 0.5 ha field plot. Each data file is labeled with the plot ID but is not georeferenced to protect the exact location of field plots.lidar_files.zip.zipLitter production data for CARBONO plotsBiweekly litterfall data for the CARBONO plot network in La Selva, Costa Rica. Original data and detailed methods are available at www.ots.ac.cr/carbonoproject. Data are day-adjusted values per plot from the 'TOTLITDATA' tab of original data files.Litter.csvTree ID information for trees in CARBONO plotsIndividual tree information for each tree ID in CARBONO plots at La Selva Biological Station, Costa Rica. Original data and detailed methods are available from www.ots.ac.cr/carbonoproject.TreeIDs.csvTree species information for CARBONO plotsTree species code, name, and wood density for ...

Costa Rica Exports of machine-tools operated by laser, ultrasonic, electron beam processes to Guatemala was US$4.9 Thousand during 2023, according to the United Nations COMTRADE database on international trade.

Costa Rica Exports of machine-tools operated by laser, ultrasonic, electron beam processes to Italy was US$1.32 Thousand during 2023, according to the United Nations COMTRADE database on international trade.

Costa Rica Exports of machine-tools operated by laser, ultrasonic, electron beam processes to Panama was US$150 during 2023, according to the United Nations COMTRADE database on international trade. Costa Rica Exports of machine-tools operated by laser, ultrasonic, electron beam processes to Panama - data, historical chart and statistics - was last updated on June of 2025.

Costa Rica Imports from Honduras of Machine-tools Operated By Laser, Ultrasonic, Electron Beam Processes was US$39.53 Thousand during 2011, according to the United Nations COMTRADE database on international trade.

Costa Rica Imports from Colombia of Machine-tools Operated By Laser, Ultrasonic, Electron Beam Processes was US$11.78 Thousand during 2023, according to the United Nations COMTRADE database on international trade.