{"id":32008,"date":"2025-04-14T09:47:17","date_gmt":"2025-04-14T04:17:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=32008"},"modified":"2025-04-16T18:29:52","modified_gmt":"2025-04-16T12:59:52","slug":"esas-biomass-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/esas-biomass-mission\/","title":{"rendered":"ESA&#8217;s Biomass Mission"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>ESA&#8217;s Biomass Mission Latest News<\/h2>\n<p>The European Space Agency (ESA) is preparing to launch a landmark space mission called the Biomass Mission, which will provide the first-ever comprehensive global measurements of forest biomass.<\/p>\n<h2>About the Mission<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The <strong>European Space Agency (ESA)<\/strong> is launching a pioneering mission called the <strong>Biomass Mission<\/strong>, scheduled for <strong>April 29, 2025<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>The satellite will be launched aboard a <strong>Vega C rocket<\/strong> from <strong>Korou Spaceport in French Guiana<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>It will be placed in a <strong>sun-synchronous orbit<\/strong> at an altitude of approximately <strong>666 km<\/strong>, ensuring the satellite observes the Earth under consistent lighting conditions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Objective and Significance<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The <strong>Biomass Mission<\/strong> aims to generate the <strong>first-ever global measurements of forest biomass<\/strong>, providing data that is currently <strong>severely lacking<\/strong> at a planetary scale.<\/li>\n<li>The mission seeks to <strong>map the world\u2019s forests<\/strong> and understand how they are <strong>changing over time<\/strong>, contributing to the study of the <strong>global carbon cycle<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Forests<\/strong> are a vital component of the <strong>carbon cycle<\/strong>, acting as carbon sinks. They currently <strong>store 861 gigatonnes of carbon<\/strong> in vegetation and soils and absorb around <strong>16 billion metric tonnes of CO\u2082<\/strong> annually.<\/li>\n<li>By tracking changes in <strong>forest carbon content<\/strong>, the mission will improve our understanding of <strong>carbon emissions, deforestation, and climate change<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>The mission responds to urgent concerns: in <strong>2023 alone<\/strong>, the planet lost <strong>3.7 million hectares of tropical forests<\/strong>\u2014equivalent to losing <strong>10 football fields of forest per minute<\/strong>, contributing to about <strong>6% of global CO\u2082 emissions<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Key Technologies Used<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The satellite is equipped with a <strong>12-meter antenna<\/strong> and utilizes <strong>Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)<\/strong> to map the Earth&#8217;s surface.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Notably<\/strong>, it is the <strong>first satellite in space<\/strong> to use a <strong>P-band SAR<\/strong>, which is a <strong>long-wavelength radar<\/strong> system capable of penetrating <strong>dense forest canopies<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>This advanced technology allows measurement of <strong>carbon stored both in the canopy and on the forest floor<\/strong>, offering insights into how much <strong>biomass<\/strong> and hence, <strong>carbon<\/strong> is present.<\/li>\n<li>Since <strong>longer wavelengths<\/strong> penetrate more deeply than shorter ones, the <strong>P-band SAR<\/strong> is uniquely suited for generating <strong>3D images of forests<\/strong>, from the canopy down to the <strong>tree roots<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>ESA&#8217;s Biomass Mission FAQs<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Q1.<\/strong> What is ESA\u2019s Biomass Mission?<br \/>\n<strong>Ans.<\/strong> It is the Earth Explorer satellite mission to map global forest biomass using a P-band radar, aiding carbon cycle studies and climate change mitigation.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q2. <\/strong>How does Biomass support climate action?<br \/>\n<strong>Ans.<\/strong> By measuring forest carbon stocks, it provides data for REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation) initiatives and monitors illegal logging.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q3. <\/strong>What makes Biomass\u2019s technology unique?<br \/>\n<strong>Ans.<\/strong> Its P-band radar penetrates dense canopies to measure tree height\/biomass, overcoming limitations of optical sensors in cloudy regions.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/explained-sci-tech\/explained-tracking-the-worlds-forests-how-the-esas-biomass-mission-will-work-9942562\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">IE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Biomass Mission aims to generate the first-ever global measurements of forest biomass, providing data that is currently severely lacking at a planetary scale<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":32010,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-32008","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}