Earth Explorer Biomass P-band SAR Mission: Status and Calibration Concept

Inhalt:
The Biomass mission is an Earth Explorer Mission in the ESA Earth Observation Programme. The primary objective of Biomass is to determine the worldwide distribution of forest above-ground biomass in order to reduce the major uncertainties in calculations of carbon stocks and fluxes associated with the terrestrial biosphere. Biomass will carry a fully polarimetric P-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR). The Biomass system relies on an extensive in-orbit antenna characterisation and calibration concept which makes use of a fully polarimetric transponder. This paper provides a description of the calibration concept, the Biomass calibration transponder and the mission status.