26/01/2026
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The European Space Agency’s innovative Biomass satellite is now fully commissioned, opening free access to a powerful new stream of data that promise a step change in our understanding of forest dynamics and their role in regulating the global carbon cycle.
Launched in April 2025, Biomass – an ESA Earth Explorer mission – is now set to deliver unprecedented insight into how the world’s forests are changing and how much carbon they store. It is the first satellite to carry a P-band synthetic aperture radar, capable of penetrating dense forest canopies to measure woody biomass, including trunks and large branches, where the majority of forest carbon is held.
These measurements provide a robust proxy for carbon storage, the assessment of which lies at the heart of the mission’s objectives.
Following the satellite’s launch and placement in orbit around Earth, the Biomass team has spent months meticulously calibrating and fine-tuning it during the commissioning phase to ensure the delivery of the highest-quality data possible.
Now, the satellite has passed this important phase with flying colours and is starting what it was built for – and its data are now open and accessible to all.
The photograph was taken during the formal handover from commissioning to scientific operations.
ESA’s Biomass Mission Manager, Klaus Scipal, said, “Reaching the end of commissioning reflects the collective effort of teams across ESA, industry and the science community. Months of hard work and close collaboration have ensured that Biomass is performing exactly as intended, and we are grateful for the dedication and professionalism of everyone involved.
“With commissioning complete and handover for scientific operations, Biomass moves from promise to delivery.
“The mission has commenced with a single tomographic global coverage phase to reveal the structure of the forest which takes about 18 months. This will be followed by multiple nine-month interferometric global coverages for the remainder of the mission’s life to understand how forests change over time.”
The images from the Biomass mission, presented below, first depict a transect of estimated forest carbon content, in tonnes per hectare, across Gabon and the Republic of the Congo, extending to Cameroon and the Central African Republic. These estimates are subsequently presented in graphical form.
Maciej Soja, a senior researcher at Wageningen Environmental Research in the Netherlands who has been involved in the development of the Biomass mission for over 15 years, commented “While the full potential of Biomass has yet to be realised, the initial results are highly encouraging, and forthcoming tomographic and interferometric data modalities promise to deliver even deeper insights.
“These products will help researchers better understand climate change processes and support more effective forest management and monitoring, particularly in the Global South.”
Dr Scipal added, “We are also currently engaging with the scientific community at the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Polarimetric Interferometry and Biomass Science Workshop in Slovenia, where we are discussing advanced SAR methods for forest science and applications, and presenting and discussing the capabilities of the Biomass mission.”
As part of the post-launch activities, scientists from several institutes – including the German Aerospace Center (DLR), the Gabonese Agency for Space Studies and Observations (AGEOS) and the Gabonese Air Force – took part in an ambitious ESA airborne campaign to support the calibration of Biomass.
The campaign involved an aircraft equipped with a synthetic aperture radar system specifically designed for airborne operations, which acquired detailed images of the tropical forest below. Several flights were carefully timed to closely coincide with Biomass overpasses and collect near-simultaneous radar observations.
These airborne data are now being compared with the satellite measurements to further assess calibration accuracy and validate the overall performance of the Biomass mission.
Tania Casal, ESA Campaign Scientist, noted, “This campaign marks an important milestone for the Biomass mission. By combining coordinated airborne and satellite radar observations over Gabon’s exceptionally diverse forests, we are gaining crucial insight into the mission’s calibration and performance.
“The results will not only strengthen confidence in Biomass’ tomographic measurements, but also demonstrate how countries like Gabon, with a strong commitment to forest conservation, can benefit from consistent, high-quality observations.”
ESA’s Director of Earth Observation Programmes, Simonetta Cheli, added, “The handover from commissioning to operations marks a major milestone. I would like to thank everyone involved in the mission’s journey, from the moment this remarkable Earth Explorer satellite was still on the drawing board to its readiness for duty in space.
“One of the major challenges facing scientists and policymakers has been the lack of accurate, global data on how much carbon is stored in forests, and how these stocks are changing in response to rising temperatures, increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide, and human-driven land-use change.
“Data from the Biomass mission is now set to significantly reduce uncertainties in estimates of forest carbon stocks and fluxes, including those associated with forest loss and regrowth”