The first satellite to be launched on Tuesday will be able to assess how they protect the planet from climate change through clouds and leafy canopies.

Biomass satellites from the European Space Agency will "weight" the Earth's forests, revealing how much planetary carbon is stored in the trees, so it is placed in the atmosphere.

So far, it is impossible to calculate the amount of carbon stored by 1.5 trillion trees in the rainforest on Earth.

Led by British company Airbus, the project hopes to help scientists track climate change and deforestation rates more accurately.

The satellite is scheduled to be launched from the Kourou Station of ESA's French Guiana at 10:15 BST.

It is affectionately named "Space Brolly" for its huge 12m diameter antenna that expands outward.

The antenna will use radar with long wavelengths - allowing it to see the depths of the forest inside and reveal the branches and trunks covered by canopy.

“Most of the radars we have in space today take great images of icebergs, but when they look at the forest, they see the tops of the forest, the twigs, the leaves, and they don’t penetrate into the forest,” explained Dr. Ralph Cordey, head of geosciences at Airbus.

"But we found that by using longer radar wavelengths we could see the depths of trees and forests," he said.

The 1.2-ton satellite will use no different methods than those used in CT scans and analyze slices through trees on repeat channels to construct a picture of how much wood material exists.

It is this material that can be used as a proxy for the amount of carbon dioxide stored.

Currently, scientists have been measuring individual trees and trying to infer, but this raises a "huge challenge" by Professor Mat Disney, a professor of remote sensing at University College London.

"Our current understanding is really spotty because it's really hard," he said. "Essentially, we're talking about trying to weigh the amount of carbon stored in ten million trees in the tropical regions.

“Satellites are really the only way you can do this consistently.”

After the satellite is activated to verify its returned data, ground measurements will continue.

Despite years of testing, the release is not simple.

"Something on the satellite is big, including its 12-meter-long, deployable antenna. It's kind of like deploying an umbrella in space, just a big umbrella, so we'll look for this to go smoothly," Dr. Cordey said.

Airbus brings engineers from US company L3Harris Technologies to its site in Stevenage to oversee the construction of antenna drives.

L3HARRIS is an expert in these large, unpopular systems – the expertise currently not yet possessed in Europe.

If the release is successful, the team hopes to make the first map within six months and will continue to collect data for the next five years.

These annual maps will not only show how much carbon is stored, but how much carbon can be lost through deforestation.

"We have been watching from Landsat (other satellites like Landsat) for 50 years and are greatly affected by clouds. In the tropical regions, we have a lot of time to have clouds, so you may not see a bunch of tropical forests."

Another advantage of biomass satellites' longer wavelengths is that it can penetrate clouds, giving forests a consistent, comparable field of view from one year to the next.

It is this result that inspired scientists who have been working on the project for more than 20 years.

"It's exciting because it tells us what we might take for granted," Dr. Cody said. "Our forests, trees, how they control the processes of our planet, especially the processes behind climate change, which is very important to us today and in the future."