Edinburgh scientists celebrate as 'giant umbrella' satellite launched into space to measure Earth's forests

A huge satellite has been successfully launched into space on a ground-breaking mission to measure the health of the world’s most dense and remote tropical forests.

Scientists from the University of Edinburgh are part of the project, which has been 20 years in the making.

Named Biomass, the new satellite, which has been described as a “giant umbrella”, will allow them to examine Earth’s forests as never before.

On Tuesday morning, it was fired into orbit from the north coast of South America with a mission to measure the health of Earth’s most vital forests.

On its side it bears the names of the scientists behind it, including a team of ecologists from Edinburgh.

Professor Mat Williams from the University of Edinburgh told STV News: “When I started my career satellite data was rare and hard to get access to.

“I spent time in the Amazon ‘tree hugging’ – measuring the diameter of trees and sleeping on river boats – to collect data.

“Now to be thinking we’re going to be doing all of that hard work from space is really exciting.”

The data collected by Biomass will be used to create unique 3D maps of forests normally hidden from human sight.

Over the next five months, the radar will be calibrated before Biomass begins its first sweep over the Earth.

Dr Klaus Scipal, Biomass mission manager from the European Space Agency said: “It’s a type of radar that has never been flow in space before which is quite exciting.

“We’re also a bit anxious that everything is working as we planned, but optimistic it will and provide very valuable data to the scientific community.”