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.

The European Space Agency’s innovative Biomass satellite is now fully commissioned, opening free access to a powerful new stream of data that promise a step change in our understanding of forest dynamics and their role in regulating the global carbon cycle.

As the COP30 climate conference gets underway in Brazil, the world’s attention is once again drawn to the plight of the Amazon – the planet’s largest and most vital rainforest. With the European Space Agency’s Earth Explorer Biomass satellite now in orbit, ESA is helping Brazil prepare to transform this new mission’s groundbreaking data into actionable knowledge for protecting the rainforest and confronting climate change.

Data from ESA’s Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission can be used to estimate how much carbon is stored in forests – and a study has improved our understanding of how reliable this proxy is and how long-term datasets from SMOS can help us to monitor this valuable resource.

Biomass images mangrove degradation in the Niger Delta

Andean foothills

Beni River, Bolivia

Amazon River, northern Brazil

ESA’s Biomass forest mission uses novel space technology to deliver new information about the state of our forests and how they are changing. Importantly, the Biomass mission will further our knowledge of the role forests play in the carbon cycle, and hence in the climate system.

Through the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation, more and more carbon dioxide is being pumped into the atmosphere. Human activity has pushed atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide to almost 50% above the pre-industrial levels of 1850. Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations, as of February 2025, stand at 427 ppm compared to around 278 ppm in 1850.

With climate change arguably the biggest environmental challenge we face today and Earth’s forests playing a key role in sequestering atmospheric carbon dioxide, it is imperative to obtain accurate estimates of biomass and how it is changing.

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 as tree trunks, branches and stems – which is where trees store most of their carbon.However, the mission’s novel P-band radar also offers opportunities to explore other aspects of Earth.