The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
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While ESA’s Biomass mission will deliver new information on forest height and above-ground forest biomass from space, work through GEO-TREES will establish a sustainable funding mechanism to support ecologists and experts working in the forest to take the tree-by-tree measurements that are needed to validate Biomass products. The goal is to establish 300 forest biomass reference plots distributed globally, following the measurement protocol and the recommendations from the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites to validate above-ground biomass.
Measuring trees in tropical forest is a challenging – besides having to work in a hostile environment and needing ecological expertise, it often requires some acrobatic skill.