In a third mapping of Kruger National Park, the team focuses on predator-prey interactions, carbon dynamics, and fire management.

The CAO team undertakes the first year of a three-year systematic mapping of the Peruvian Amazon and Andes region. Year-1 focuses on the southern third of the Amazon and Andes, collecting airborne data using their new AToMS sensor package.

The Smithsonian Institute hosts the CAO to map the rainforest and watersheds of the Panama Canel, driving new research on climate sensitivity of the world's most famous waterway.

The CAO team maps forest carbon across rebel-controlled territory in the Colombian Amazon. The crew goes nocturnal in order to avoid daytime gunfire, flying with lights out using infrared lasers to map the forest canopy.

CAO jumps from the African mainland to Madagascar to map forest structure and lemur habitat in a region of high deforestation.

CAO returns to South Africa in a massive campaign to map the 3D structure of Kruger National Park. They discover the interactions and behavior of The Big Five - lions, elephants, rhinos, leopards, and buffalo. All-new lion behavioral discoveries are made, setting the stage for Gregʻs Global TED Talk in 2012.

In another first-ever, the CAO team flys from California to Peru to undertake a first 3D mapping of parts of the Peruvian Amazon. Using the CAO-1 laser and spectrometer package, the team images forests and converts the data to carbon stocks.

State of Hawaiʻi decision-makers ask CAO to collect a wide range of data addressing biodiversity, invasive species, and forest carbon questions. This opens doors for more airborne science in support of government actions to protect the environment across the State of Hawaiʻi.

The story of CAO makes the news, and Bill Robertson from the Andrew Mellon Foundation comes to Hawaiʻi to ask Greg if they can map the savannas of South Africa. Just 12 times zones away, and on the exact other side of the planet, the challenge is too exciting to turn down. The CAO team and equipment travels to Kruger National Park and makes maps of savannas 3D structure and chemistry to assist conservation managers. The entire adventure opens the world up to their airborne program.

Until then, the team has been operating CAO-1/2 over Hawaiʻi Island, developing and improving the instrumentation, software, and data processing streams. The State of Hawaiʻi asks for the novel imaging on the island of Oʻahu, where forests remain only on remote mountain tops. The team uses this opportunity to spread its wings.

The team has a new idea to integrate an even more capable imaging spectrometer provided by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) into a Twin Otter aircraft. Basing the operation in Kona, Hawaiʻi, the combined Carnegie-JPL team succeeds in generating the first fully integrated laser and visible-to-shortwave infrared spectrometer measurements from the air. The team flys from mountains to coral reefs, collecting a first-ever database for research and development that eventually leads to CAO-3.

Working with collaborators from the U.S. Forest Service, the CAO team flys and reflys the eastern flank of Mauna Kea volcano, where native tropical forests contain abundant species and high level of stored carbon. This is their testing ground for a new approach to mapping carbon stocks using airborne lasers and spectrometers.

Home in Hilo, Hawaii, the team finalizes the new instrument package, custom software, and computers to take a stab at 3D mapping of forests on Hawaiʻi Island. Never before achieved, they use a tiny Piper Navajo, careening between the massive slopes of Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea volcanoes. They finally get the system to work over an iconic volcanic cinder cone known as PuʻuWaʻawaʻa. The image makes the front page of the Honolulu newspaper days later.

Deep in Queensland's rainforests, the team builds the foundation of Spectronomics from the ground up — literally. Handheld spectrometers pressed to leaves. Canopy samples cataloged. The painstaking work of matching chemistry to species, one tree at a time. Before you can see biodiversity from the air, you have to know what you're looking for.

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Greg and team have defined the specifications for a new airborne sensor package to probe the 3D structure and chemistry of ecosystems. They collect up engineering talent in the U.S. and Canada. The stakes are high but the funding is solid from the W.M. Keck Foundation and William R. Hearst III. They are setting course for an all new era in conservation mapping.

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CAO takes flight over African savannas for the first time. In partnership with South African National Parks, the team surveys Kruger's 1.9 million hectares — mapping over 10 million trees to understand how the park's booming elephant population is reshaping the landscape.

The GAO's 20th anniversary year. Pacific 2026 launches as a comprehensive Pacific ecosystem survey — the culmination of two decades of airborne science.

Greg founds the 'Āko'ako'a Reef Restoration Program in collaboration with Hawai'i Division of Aquatic Resources and West Hawai'i communities. Fuses cultural leadership, education, science, and government engagement.

Asner et al. in PNAS: mapped coral mortality and refugia in an archipelago-scale marine heat wave. Identifies reef refugia — places where corals survive thermal events — across the Hawaiian Islands.

First comprehensive mapping of coral reefs along the Hawaiian Islands. GAO sees through seawater to 70 feet — mapping live coral, dead coral, algae, and 3D fish habitat across 700+ miles of shoreline.

Peru creates Yaguas National Park — directly informed by CAO carbon and biodiversity mapping. The park safeguards 102 million metric tons of carbon and potentially the highest fish diversity in Peru.

CAO deployed to map 'ōhi'a tree health across the Hawaiian Islands — tracking the spread of Rapid 'Ōhi'a Death, a devastating fungal disease. Spectral technology detects stressed trees before visible symptoms appear.

Asner et al. published in Science: airborne laser-guided imaging spectroscopy to map forest trait diversity and guide conservation. All 78 million hectares of the Peruvian Amazon now mapped.

Beyond the tallest trees, the Sabah campaign reveals 40% of the state's carbon stocks exist in unprotected forests. Data guides new conservation designations by the Sabah Forestry Department.

CAO laser-scans Sabah's forests and discovers 50 trees breaking the world record for tallest tropical tree. The champion: 94.1 meters in Danum Valley. Crown diameter of 40 meters — half a football field. Helicopter verification funded by James Cameron.

CAO-3's first major domestic mission. Team flies California during the historic drought. Results in PNAS: 888 million trees show water loss, 58 million reach extreme stress. Giant sequoias studied in detail.

Third-generation CAO unveiled at Hiller Aviation Museum in San Carlos, California. $12 million in custom-built equipment aboard the Dornier. Described as the most advanced Earth mapping platform in the civil sector.

Environmental Investigation Agency uses CAO data to expose a cacao producer clearing primary Amazon rainforest. CAO maps proved the area had the highest possible carbon density immediately before clearing.

CAO team delivers a 69-page report on Peru's rainforest carbon geography to the Ministry of the Environment. First high-resolution estimate: 6.83 billion metric tons of aboveground carbon.

Asner et al. published in PNAS: targeted carbon conservation at national scales. Also released as a comprehensive report — The High-Resolution Carbon Geography of Peru.

As a direct result of CAO carbon mapping, Norway gives $300 million to Peru to protect its forests and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Data becomes policy at a scale rarely seen in conservation science.

CAO data reveals illegal gold mining in Madre de Dios expanded from less than 10,000 hectares to over 50,000 hectares. The true scale of destruction — invisible from the ground — is laid bare from the air.

CAO-2 begins operations in Panama — one of several new mission locations enabled by the Dornier's greater range and payload capacity.

The team maps carbon stocks for 40% of the Colombian Amazon — 165,000 square kilometers. Published in Biogeosciences. Colombian President Santos remarks on the significance of the partnership.

CAO flies over FARC-controlled Colombian Amazon with all lights out to avoid ground fire. Military briefings, night-flying, ordnance visible below. President Santos flies aboard with fighter jet escort and Black Hawk helicopter.

CAO maps the Osa Peninsula, home to the largest intact lowland tropical forest on the Pacific coast of the Americas and a biodiversity mega-hotspot.

CAO deployed to Kruger National Park. Mapping reveals how elephants and other megafauna shape the structural diversity of African savannas at landscape scale. Published in PNAS.

CAO maps carbon stocks across 4.3 million hectares of Peruvian Amazon at just 8 cents per hectare — proving airborne LiDAR is viable for national-scale carbon accounting.

Early CAO-1 missions over Hawaiian forests and California ecosystems prove the fusion concept works — spectral and LiDAR data can be combined from the air to see what no one has seen before.