ESA’s Biomass satellite pictured on show in the cleanroom at Airbus in Toulouse, France. The satellite is ready to be shipped to Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana for liftoff in spring.
ESA’s Biomass mission will soon play a key role in delivering novel information about the state of our forests, how they are changing over time, and advance our knowledge of the carbon cycle. It is the first satellite to carry a fully polarimetric P-band synthetic aperture radar for interferometric imaging. Thanks to the long wavelength of P-band, around 70 cm, the radar signal can slice through the whole forest layer to measure the ‘biomass’, meaning the woody trunks, branches and stems, which is where trees store most of their carbon.