Context: 

The European Space Agency’s (ESA) new mission, known as the Biomass Mission, is scheduled to launch on April 29 embark on the Vega C rocket from Europe’s spaceport in French Guiana.

About the Biomass Mission

• It will be placed in a sun-synchronous orbit (SSO), a type of orbit in which satellites are in sync with the Sun, at an altitude of around 666 km.
• The Biomass is ESA’s seventh Earth Explorer mission, planned to be a five-year mission.

Aims:

• Advance understanding of the world’s forests and how they are changing. 
• Reduce uncertainties in calculations of carbon stocks and fluxes on land.
• Provide new insight into the role forests play in the carbon cycle.
• Support global action to reduce deforestation and forest degradation. 

The Mission will:

• Monitor sub-surface geological features in arid and semi-arid regions.
• Track the movement of ice sheets in Antarctica. 
• Enable scientists to model terrain covered by dense forests.

Technology and Objectives of the Biomass Mission

Use of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)

• The mission uses SAR, a satellite imaging technique that employs radar waves to map the Earth's surface.
• It operates in the long-wave P-band frequency range, with a 70 cm wavelength—longer than other SAR systems.
• This allows the radar to penetrate dense forest canopies and gather data from the forest floor and branches.

Measurement of Forest Biomass and Carbon

• The P-band SAR will estimate the amount of forest biomass globally.
• Since approximately half of biomass is carbon, this enables accurate calculation of forest carbon content.
• Data will reveal how carbon levels in forests are changing over time.

First Satellite with P-band SAR

• This is the first satellite mission globally to carry a P-band SAR sensor.
• It features a large 12-meter antenna, which will be deployed in orbit to begin Earth observation.