Spacecraft to Map Carbon Content of Tropical Forests

Scientists are about to create detailed 3D maps of the world’s remotest, densest and darkest tropical forests - from outer space.

Credit: ESA / ATG Medialab

This will be achieved using a special radar scanner that has been fitted to a probe, named Biomass, that will be blasted into the Earth’s orbit later this month. For the next five years, the spacecraft will scan the tropical rainforests of Africa, Asia and South America and peer through their dense 40m-high ­canopies to study the vegetation that lies beneath.

Less than 2 percent of sunlight reaches the forest floor in these regions, yet Biomass will study them in unsurpassed detail from a height of more than 600km. The data collected will then be used to create unique 3D maps of forests normally hidden from human sight, enabling scientists to calculate how much carbon is stored in the forests and measure how levels are changing.

“We don’t properly understand what changes are now taking place, partly because we do not have accurate estimations of carbon levels in these forests. Biomass is going to help us to get a better grip on those numbers,” said Bjorn Rommen, mission scientist for the Biomass project.

Tropical forests play a crucial role in protecting the planet from some of the worst effects of global warming because they absorb so much carbon dioxide from the atmosphere: estimates suggest they take up about eight billion tonnes and are often described as the Earth’s green lungs.

"The Biomass mission is designed to deliver crucial information about the state of our forests and how they are changing, and to further our knowledge of the role forests play in the carbon cycle," says the European Space Agency.

Biomass is scheduled to be launched from ESA’s spaceport in French Guiana on 29 April.

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