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\t\t\t\t\t\t29\/04\/2026<\/span> To mark the first anniversary of the European Space Agency\u2019s Biomass satellite, we present a selection of striking images captured over the past 12 months, revealing Earth\u2019s forests, and much more, in new detail. In just one year, this pioneering mission has begun transforming our understanding of forest dynamics and advancing how scientists monitor the critical role forests play in regulating the global carbon cycle.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Launched on 29 April 2025, Biomass, an Earth Explorer mission, 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 branches where most forest carbon is stored. These measurements provide a powerful proxy for assessing carbon storage \u2013 the core objective of the mission.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Following launch and orbital insertion, the Biomass team spent several months carefully calibrating and fine-tuning the satellite during its commissioning phase, paving the way for data to become\u00a0openly available\u00a0to users worldwide in January this year.<\/p>\n Since then, the mission has begun demonstrating its scientific potential, delivering data that promise to improve estimates of forest carbon stocks and deepen understanding of how forests respond to environmental change.<\/p>\n The selection of images featured in the carousel below offer a glimpse of that potential, showcasing some of the remarkable views Biomass has captured during its first year in orbit, from the tropical forests of South America to the remote Arctic.<\/p>\n These images are polarimetric synthetic aperture radar images, where the colours do not correspond to the natural visual colours, but instead show different structural properties of Earth.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n These images not only reflect the mission\u2019s main objective of studying forests and the carbon cycle, but also how it offers opportunities to explore other aspects of Earth, such as measuring ice sheet velocities and potentially sub-surface geology in arid regions.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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