Following its arrival at Pariacabo harbour in Kourou, French Guiana, ESA’s Biomass satellite has been rolled out of its shipment container, which kept it protected throughout its two-week voyage from France across the Atlantic Ocean to South America.
Now safely in the cleanroom at Europe’s Spaceport, it will be first thoroughly inspected to ensure that it is in good health, but first indications are that “Biomass is in great shape.” Over the course of the next weeks, the teams will prepare this cutting-edge Earth-observing satellite for liftoff on a Vega-C rocket at the end of April.
Once in orbit and commissioned, Biomass mission will 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.