The first satellite to weigh the Earth’s forests to determine how much carbon is stored in trees has successfully taken off from the European Space Agency’s Kourou station in French Guiana. Built by Airbus, the 1.25-tonne British-built spacecraft—covered by Wood Central earlier this month—is part of a Biomass mission that will, for the first time, map the world’s most remote tropical forests and determine how much carbon is being stored in 1.5 trillion trees.
Affectionately known as ‘space brolly,’ given its giant 12-metre-diameter antenna, it will scan the darkest and most remote tropical rainforests in Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. There, it will model the impacts of climate change and deforestation by looking down on 40-metre-high forest canopies, creating maps that will renew every nine months over the mission’s five-year period.
Speaking after the launch, UK Minister Sir Chris Bryant said the mission showcases British ingenuity at its very best, from conception in Sheffield to construction in Stevenage: “Britain is not only stepping to the forefront of the space industry but of global climate action, too.”
“Contributing greatly to a European mission set to deliver vital global results is a testament to the UK’s industrial and academic expertise in space technology and will attract global investment into our vibrant space ecosystem, helping us boost growth and deliver our Plan for Change.”
According to Shaun Quegan, a University of Sheffield professor and the mission’s lead proposer, the satellite will revolutionise the understanding of the volume of carbon held in the planet’s most impenetrable tropical rainforests and, crucially, how this is changing over time: “Biomass is a brilliant example of what we can achieve in collaboration with our partners in industry and academia. The mission culminates decades of highly innovative work in partnership with some of the best scientists in Europe and the US.”
Wood Central understands Airbus UK is the Prime Contractor and has manufactured the satellite in Stevenage, a space hub aboutt 43km north of London. Throughout construction, it supported 250 highly skilled jobs, bolstering the UK’s 52,000-strong space workforce.
“Most radars that we have in space today take wonderful images of icebergs, but when they look at forests, they see the tops of the forest, the little twigs, the little leaves, they don’t penetrate down into the forests. But we found that by using a much longer radar wavelength, we could see down into the depths of trees and forests.”
Dr Ralph Cordey, head of geosciences at Airbus
The satellite will slice through forests like a CT scan.
According to the BBC, the satellite uses an approach similar to a CT scan—slicing through the trees to create a picture of the amount of woody material present. Currently, scientists measure individual trees and try to extrapolate data from them, but this presents a “huge challenge,” according to Professor Mat Disney, a professor of remote sensing at University College London.
“Our current understanding is really patchy because it’s really, really difficult to measure. Essentially, what we’re talking about is trying to weigh the amount of carbon that’s stored in one and a half trillion trees across the tropics. Satellites are the only way you can do that consistently.”
Wood Central understands that ground measurements will continue after the satellite is launched to verify the data it sends back. And despite years of testing, the launch won’t be straightforward: “Certain things on the satellite are big, including the 12-metre, deployable antenna. It’s a bit like deploying an umbrella in space, only a very big one, so we will be looking for that to happen smoothly,” Dr Cordey said.
Airbus brought engineers from the American company L3Harris Technologies to their site in Stevenage to oversee the construction of the antenna reflector.
L3Harris specialises in these large, unfurlable systems, with expertise not in Europe. If the launch is successful, the team hopes to produce the first maps within six months and will continue to gather data for the next five years. These annual maps will show how much carbon is stored and how much is being lost through deforestation.
“The kind of observations we’ve had for 50 years from [other] satellites like Landsat are affected very heavily by clouds. And in tropical regions, we have clouds a lot of the time, so you may not see a chunk of tropical forest.”
Professor Mat Disney, a professor of remote sensing at University College London
Another advantage of the satellite’s longer wavelength is that it can penetrate clouds, giving a consistent, comparable view of a forest from one year to the next: “It’s exciting because it’s going to tell us about something that we perhaps take for granted,” Dr Cordey said. “Our forests, our trees, how they are contributing to the processes which govern our planet, and in particular, the processes behind climate change, which are so important to us today and for the future.”
- To learn more about the Biomass satellite, which will launch aboard the VegaC rocket, click here for Wood Central’s special feature from April 9.
