New insights into carbon cycles in our forests with biomass satellite
Seeing the world through the trees - the biomass satellite ©️ESA/ATG medialab CC-BY-SA 3.0 IGO
The European Space Agency's (ESA) groundbreaking biomass satellite, designed to provide unprecedented insights into the world's forests and their crucial role in the Earth's carbon cycle, has been launched. The satellite lifted off from the European Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on April 29th aboard a Vega-C rocket. Our forests are important carbon reservoirs, but they are under pressure from massive deforestation, increasing drought, monocultures and pests. With the newly collected data from 'Biomass', it is hoped to gain a better understanding of the situation and also of the changes in the carbon cycle on the planet.
ESA's Director of Earth Observation Programs, Simonetta Cheli, said: "I would like to congratulate everyone involved in the development and launch of this extraordinary mission. Biomass now joins our esteemed family of Earth Explorers - missions that have consistently made ground-breaking discoveries and improved scientific understanding of our planet."
"With biomass, we are able to gain important new data on how much carbon is stored in the world's forests, helping to close important gaps in our knowledge of the carbon cycle and ultimately the Earth's climate system."
Major role of forests
Forests play an important role in the Earth's carbon cycle as they absorb and store large amounts of carbon dioxide, helping to regulate the planet's temperature. They are often referred to as the "green lungs of the earth" and absorb around 8 billion tons of carbon dioxide every year - equivalent to around 20% of our annual CO2 emissions. However, the deforestation and destruction of forests - especially in tropical regions - releases the stored carbon back into the atmosphere, exacerbating climate change.
A major challenge for scientists and policy makers is the lack of accurate data on how much carbon forests store and how these stocks are changing due to factors such as rising temperatures, increasing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere and human-induced land-use change.
Over a period of at least five and a half years, the new satellite will provide important information on the state of our forests and how they are changing, and expand our knowledge of the role of forests in the carbon cycle.
New measurement data thanks to special radar
Biomass is the first satellite equipped with a synthetic aperture P-band radar capable of penetrating the tree canopy and measuring the woody biomass - trunks, branches and stems - where most of the carbon is stored. These measurements serve as a proxy for carbon storage, the assessment of which is the main objective of the mission.
"You can imagine it like a bat. We send out a signal with the radar instrument, which is then reflected by the Earth's surface and can be measured by us," Klaus Scipal, the manager of this ESA mission, explained to ORF.
The biomass data will significantly reduce uncertainties in the estimation of carbon stocks and fluxes, including those related to land use change, forest loss and regrowth.
Here is an ESA explanatory video in English
