Extracting building height from GEDI data

[ganesh1857]

I am doing PhD in earthquake damage scenario analysis using GIS and remote sensing techniques. Since Lidar data is so costly and we are not at all in a position to afford such surveys, I am trying to extract building height for my study area (which is an urban area and a highly populated one) from as many sources as possible.

I have downloaded GEDI L2A h5 data (BEAM 0101, 0110, 1000, 1011). But couldn't able to go to next step. I have read journal papers and technical documents but somehow stuck in a loop. I would like to know, by using elev_highestreturn, elev_lowestmode, lat_lowetsmode and long_lowestmode - will i be able to extract the height of an object (whether it's a tree or building).

From my understanding - after converting ellipsoidal height to orthometric heights (i am applying EGM 2008 geoid parameters), the difference between highestreturn - lowestmode will be the elevation of an object. Is what I have understood correct ?

Attached is an example file - which i have opened in Panoply.

[LP DAAC - jwilson]

Hi @ganesh1857 ,
Our Subject Matter Expert suggested to please review the following tutorials: https://git.earthdata.nasa.gov/projects/LPDUR/repos/gedi-v2-tutorials/browse.
Specifically, https://git.earthdata.nasa.gov/projects/LPDUR/repos/gedi-v2-tutorials/browse/GEDI_L2A_V2_Tutorial.ipynb goes through working with GEDI L2A Version 2 data.
Let us know if you have any further questions.
Janice