Earth's forests to be weighed using ‘space umbrella'

Telegraph

29-04-2025

Earth's forests will be weighed for the first time using a giant 'space umbrella' that can peer through tree canopies from orbit.
On Tuesday morning, the British-built Biomass satellite launched from the European spaceport in French Guiana for a five-year mission to find out how much carbon the planet's trees hold.
Although it is known that trees suck up carbon, holding it in their wood, nobody knows how much storage space exists across Earth.
Most of the world's trees grow in remote rainforests that are difficult to access, and illegal loggers are known to strip below the canopies to avoid deforestation being picked up on aircraft fly-bys.
Space radars can see the tops of forests but do not penetrate further down and they can be blinded by cloud cover.
The Biomass satellite will orbit 413 miles above Earth's surface and use special radar to take layered scans of the trees to build up a complete picture of their height and mass.
Dr Paul Bate, the head of the UK Space Agency, said: 'It's nearly 20 years since this idea was conceived so to see Biomass launched successfully is a really important milestone. You would think down here on Earth we should be able to access the forests, but we're never going to be able to have people physically counting every tree, so this is a big step forward.
'Climate modelling has many variables, and the total biomass of the planet is one of the least understood ones, so the more accurate they are, the better the models.
'Biomass will be able to look down, right through the canopy and measure the height and density and different layers of forests. It's groundbreaking science and we will learn things we didn't know.'
The world's rainforests are made of more than one and half trillion trees and are often referred to as the 'lungs of the earth', storing billions of tonnes of carbon. But, until now, measuring exactly how much carbon they store has been virtually impossible.
The satellite, commissioned by the European Space Agency, was developed by Prof Shaun Quegan, a University of Sheffield academic, and built at Airbus in Stevenage.
It carries a P-band radar with a long wavelength of about 70 cm, allowing the signal to penetrate through the forest canopy recording trees like a CT scan to build up a picture of how much wood is present. It can also see through clouds.
Prof Quegan said: 'It will revolutionise our understanding of the volume of carbon held in the most impenetrable tropical rainforests on the planet and, crucially, how this is changing over time.'
The satellite is now safely in orbit, but is in its folded up state, and will begin to open on May 2, being fully operational by mid June when it will start delivering scientific data.
Scientists are expecting a 3D map of tropical forests after 17 months, then new maps every nine months for the rest of the five-year mission, showing how the forests are changing.
Observations will also lead to better insight into the rates of habitat loss.
'Satellite now safely in orbit'
Alain Fauré, the head of space systems at Airbus Defence and Space, said: 'Biomass will give scientists and climatologists unprecedented data on the state of the world's forests, further enhancing the understanding of the climate cycle.
'The spacecraft is now safely in orbit and ready to deliver its precious data.'
The Biomass mission will also map subsurface geology to search for new water sources in deserts, and monitor the structure of ice sheets.
Sir Chris Bryant, the space minister, said: 'The Biomass mission showcases British ingenuity at its very best, from conception in Sheffield to construction in Stevenage.
'Britain is not only stepping to the forefront of the space industry, but of global climate action too.'