Biomass tomography: A new opportunity to observe the earth forests

The next ESA Earth Explorer Core Mission BIOMASS is envisaged to collect multiple baselines on selected areas during the initial phase of its lifetime. Such data will allow to image the vertical structure of the vegetation layer to within a vertical resolution of about 20 m, sufficient to decompose the backscattered power from a tropical forest into two-three layers. The information provided by tomography has recently been shown to be strictly linked to above ground biomass (AGB) in tropical forest, therefore providing a valuable tool for ABG estimation. The aim of this paper is to present a bird-eye overview of BIOMASS Tomography, along with the main experimental results from airborne campaigns flown during Phase-A BIOMASS activities.