Amazon River, northern Brazil

To mark the first anniversary of the European Space Agency’s Biomass satellite, we present a selection of striking images captured over the past 12 months, revealing Earth’s 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. 

This image, captured over Brazil on 18 June 2025, shows the confluence of the Purus River and the Amazon River in northern Brazil, where the silty, ‘whitewater’ channels weave through a vast landscape of dense tropical rainforest and seasonally flooded plains.

Read full story: Stunning images from Biomass mark its one year in orbit