Scott Nicholas
An Airbus business segment has signed an agreement with Europe’s pan-continental agency to start development work for the next Earth Explorer mission referred to as the Biomass satellite.
Airbus Defence and Space will aid the project expected to launch in 2021 that works to measure forest biomass to help assess terrestrial carbon stocks and fluxes, the company said Tuesday.
“Collecting accurate data on the world’s biomass is key to our understanding of the world’s climate,” said Francois Auque, Airbus head of space systems.
Airbus said that the spacecraft will carry a space-borne P-band synthetic aperture radar designed to deliver maps of tropical, temperate and boreal forest biomass.
The business also support the UN climate change program called REDD+ that works to address emissions due to deforestation by monitoring forests in areas with no need for ground intervention.
