A New Satellite Will Map the Carbon Content of Rainforests From Space, and It’s Set to Launch This Month

After more than ten years of development, the European Space Agency (ESA) is preparing to launch a satellite that will map the carbon content of the world’s rainforests. The probe, named Biomass, was recently shipped to French Guiana, where it’s slated to lift off from Europe’s Spaceport on April 29 aboard a 230-ton Vega-C rocket. Over the next five years, the spacecraft will orbit the Earth and monitor forests’ above-ground biomass—think trunks and large branches—as well as the height of trees in Africa, Asia and South America. Those measurements, captured with the help of a first-of-its-kind radar, can then serve as a proxy for tracking stored carbon. More

(Source: Smithsonian Magazine - Apr 12)