The ESA launched Biomass aboard a Vega-C rocket earlier this week. The launch vehicle blasted off from Kourou in French Guiana. Biomass is expected to revolutionize humanity's understanding of Earth's forests and the impact that human activities have on them.

The Biomass satellite is designed to measure carbon stocks in tropical forests, helping scientists to understand how they work and how they are changing.

Using a new radar technique, Biomass can 'see' through clouds and tree canopies down to the forest floor, where most biomass—and therefore carbon—is concentrated.