ESA BIOMASS: How Do Biomass Mission Products Compare to Other Biomass Products?

The 2024 BIOMASS Summer School (21–25 October, Jena) focused on biomass and the carbon cycle, with lectures and hands-on sessions on ESA’s BIOMASS mission, SAR remote sensing, and ecosystem monitoring. Hosted by the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, it brought together experts and early-career scientists to advance methods for measuring, modeling, and understanding global biomass dynamics.

Prof. Christiane Schmullius (Uni Jena, Chair of Remote Sensing) provides an overview of research projects in which the Chair of Remote Sensing at the University of Jena has participated, either in a leading role or as a research partner, culminating in the ongoing ESA-funded CCI Biomass project. These activities began with the SIBERIA project, where a large part of the boreal forest in Siberia was mapped and the above ground biomass was extracted. The follow on project was BIOMASAR, where new approaches for above ground biomass estimation were developed. They were further developed in the ESA CCI GlobBiomass project, were several regional and global biomass maps were produced.