Biomass - A fully polarimetric P-band SAR ESA mission

The Biomass mission was selected as the 7th Earth Explorer Mission within the frame of the ESA Earth Observation Programme. The primary objective of Biomass is to determine the worldwide distribution of forest aboveground biomass in order to reduce the major uncertainties in calculations of carbon stocks and fluxes associated with the terrestrial biosphere, including carbon fluxes associated with Land Use Change, forest degradation and forest regrowth. Secondary objectives of the mission include imaging of sub-surface geological structures in arid environments, generation of a true Digital Terrain Model without biases caused by forest cover, measurement of glacier and ice sheet velocities, and better knowledge of the ionosphere. To meet these objectives Biomass will carry, for the first time in space, a fully polarimetric P-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR). This paper provides a description of the mission objectives and system architecture.