Amazon and Antarctica in the first images of the Biomass satellite

From the dense Amazon rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, with signs of deforestation and details hidden among the dense vegetation, to the ancient riverbeds hidden under the sand of the Sahara and the ice flows of Antarctica : these are the first incredible images taken by Biomass , the European Space Agency mission launched on 29 April 2025 with the aim of analysing the amount of 'hidden' carbon like never before and which is now completing operations to calibrate its instruments. The images were presented in Vienna, at the opening of the conference on Earth observation 'Living Planet' organised by ESA.

“Looking at these first images, it is clear that our Earth Explorer Biomass satellite is poised to deliver on its promise,” said ESA Director of Earth Observation Programmes Simonetta Cheli. “We expect this new mission to represent a revolutionary leap forward in our understanding of Earth’s forests , combining cutting-edge radar technology with scientific excellence that will reveal vital information about carbon storage, climate change and the health of our planet’s precious forest ecosystems.” Equipped with an innovative P-band radar capable of scanning the entire thickness of the biomass in tropical forests like an ultrasound , Biomass will provide invaluable and previously missing data on the amount of carbon present on the planet , which is also essential for climate forecasting .

Biomass is still in the instrument calibration phase before becoming truly operational. The first images are 6, of which 4 are of rainforests in South America and Africa , where hidden details are visible within the forest cover, while the other 2 are of very different places: the Sahara desert , to test the radar's ability to penetrate the sand and detect hidden details such as long-gone lake and river beds, and Antarctica , where the invisible dynamics of ice flows are visible. "We are very pleased to report that everything is working smoothly and that its first images are nothing short of spectacular, and are just a small taste of what is to come," said Michael Fehringer, ESA's Biomass project manager.