Biomass Space Probe

Biomass Space Probe

Forests cover nearly a third of Earth's land.They are very important for life on our planet. Over 80% of land animals and plants live in forests. Forests also protect Earth by slowing down climate change, but scientists don't know exactly how much they help slow climate change.

Now a new space mission(任务) could be going to find out how much carbon is stored by Earth's trees. Trees take in CO₂from the air. CO₂is a gas that keeps the Sun's heat in Earth's air, making Earth warmer. It's hard to know how much carbon the trees take in from the air, but the researchers think they can find it out from space.

The mission uses a space probe (探测器) called Biomass. It has a radar (雷达) that can scan(扫描) from the top of the forest down to the ground. It can scan every detail of the trees in the world's thickest rain forests.

The scans will then be used to create 3-D maps of forests in Africa, Asia, and South America. Shaun Quegan, the lead scientist, said the scans will let scientists weigh the carbon in the world's tropical (热带的) forests from space and see how it changes year by year.

Biomass will be sent into space from French Guiana,South America. It will fly 414 miles up and keep circling Earth for the next five years.