Seeing the wood through the trees

ESA’s Biomass is the first satellite to carry a P-band synthetic aperture radar. Thanks to the long wavelength of P-band, around 70 cm, this novel radar is able to penetrate through the forest canopy, allowing it to collect information on different parts of the forest, such tree trunks, branches and stems – which is where trees store most of their carbon.

The radar is fully polarimetric, which means it is capable of transmitting and receiving in two orthogonal linear polarisations, horizontal and vertical. The different signals in each polarisation channel are needed to yield different information about the forest.