ESA - Biomass

ESA title

The mission

Carrying a novel P-band synthetic aperture radar, 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.

The launch

Date: 29 April 2025
Site: Kourou, French Guiana
Rocket: Vega-C

1st P-band radar in space
666 km altitude
1250 kg mass
12 m diameter antenna

Biomass

Map of forest carbon from ESA’s Biomass mission

ESA’s Biomass goes live with data now open to all

26/01/2026 7026 views 81 likes

Forest floor and forest canopy

Brazil gears up to harness ESA’s Biomass data

13/11/2025 3556 views 43 likes

Global map of vegetation optical depth, 2018

SMOS adds long-term view on carbon stored in forests

01/08/2025 3100 views 54 likes

Bolivian forest and landscape from Biomass

Biomass satellite returns striking first images of forests …

23/06/2025 43333 views 143 likes

Austria Center Vienna

Media invitation: register for Living Planet Symposium 2025

ESA's Biomass Calibration Transponder in New Norcia, Australia

Enabling & Support

Biomass, an oversized football and the Australian outback

15/05/2025 1598 views 20 likes

Biomass in orbit

Biomass is now in space – what happens next?

More items

Applications
Biomass images
Open
Applications
Biomass videos
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Applications
Biomass mission kit
Open
Applications
Documents and publications
Open

Discover Biomass

Seeing the wood through the trees

Introducing Biomass

8751 views 8 likes

Tropical forest

Forests and climate

1829 views 2 likes

Measuring biomass

Biomass on biomass

3200 views 3 likes

Biomass beyond forests

Biomass beyond forests

1441 views 5 likes

Testing the deployment of Biomass' solar wing

The satellite

3020 views 4 likes

Biomass instrument open

The instrument

7156 views 18 likes

Kiruna station

Operations and data flow

1940 views 0 likes

Biomass in the anechoic chamber

Facts and figures

3970 views 11 likes

Above ground biomass

Biomass and the Climate Change Initiative

1106 views 4 likes

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