Options and Limitations of Operational Above-ground Biomass Mapping – a Summary of 12 Years of Forest Biomass Mapping with Radar Remote Sensing in Siberia, China and Canada

Vegetation biomass is a crucial ecological variable for understanding the evolution and potential future changes of the climate system. Vegetation biomass is a larger global store of carbon than the atmosphere, and changes in the amount of vegetation biomass already affect the global atmosphere by being a net source of carbon, and having the potential either to sequester carbon in the future or to become an even larger source. Therefore, a global assessment of biomass and its dynamics is an essential input to climate change forecasting models and mitigation and adaptation strategies. Two other emerging issues contribute to the increasing importance of the biomass role as an essential climate variable: i) the growing use of biomass for energy production, so the increasing percentage of global GHGs emitted from biomass consumption, and ii) the increasing concern on the possibility to significantly reduce global GHGs emissions by avoiding biomass losses from deforestation and forest degradation.