Flying in sync over the jungle
Flying in sync over the jungle
The Central African country of Gabon offers ideal conditions to study the biomass of tropical forests. DLR has already conducted two measurement campaigns there using its research aircraft. In autumn 2025, the DLR Microwaves and Radar Institute launched another special research project in collaboration with ESA and the Gabonese space agency AGEOS. During the radar measurement campaign, DLR's Dornier DO 228 flew over the same forest areas shortly after ESA's new Earth observation satellite, Biomass. Carrying the specially developed and precisely calibrated F-SAR airborne radar, the aircraft collected reference data used to fine-tune and validate the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) on Biomass – helping to ensure the highest possible data quality. With the European Biomass mission, forest biomass and structure can now be determined with unprecedented precision, using cutting-edge SAR technology from DLR. This knowledge is essential to calculate how much climate-relevant carbon dioxide forests absorb, store and release through deforestation.
