Potential knowledge gain in large-scale simulations of forest carbon fluxes from remotely sensed biomass and height

▶ Pseudo remote sensing estimates of biomass and height are assimilated in ORCHIDEE-FM. ▶ A positive NEP can only be simulated when the growth stage of the forests is assimilated. ▶ Assimilating in situ biomass or height brings down the RMSE of simulated NEP by up to 35%. ▶ Assimilating remotely estimated biomass brings down the RMSE of simulated NEP by up to 25%. ▶ The most improved simulated flux is respiration.