The European Space Agency announced Tuesday that researchers have successfully launched a new satellite designed to study Earth's forests and “provide unprecedented insights” to see how these regions affect Earth's carbon cycle.

The satellite, called Biomass, was launched with a rocket from the European Spaceport in Kuru, New Guinea, and was separated from the rocket less than an hour after its launch, the ESA said in a press release. About 75 minutes after launch, the ESA satellite controller received the first signal from biomass, indicating the satellite's expected work in orbit.

Over the next few days, the controller will perform the satellite’s “launch and early orbit” phase to ensure all systems are functioning well and that the satellite will perform “a series of complex manipulations” to deploy grid reflectors nearly 40 feet wide. The reflector will receive data from the world forests, ESA said.

ESA says the forests on Earth collectively absorb and store about 8 billion tons of carbon dioxide each year. Regulates the temperature of the planet. Deforestation and degradation, especially in tropical regions, means that stored carbon is released into the atmosphere, which could lead to climate change, ESA said. The lack of accurate data is expected to have an estimated 1.5 trillion tree shops on Earth and how much human activities will affect that storage, ESA said.

To "weight" the planet's trees and determine their ability to carbon dioxide, biomass will use P-band synthetic aperture radars. This is the first technology in space. The radar can penetrate forest canopies and measure woody biomass, including tree trunks, branches and stems, ESA said. Most forest carbon is stored in these parts of the tree. The measurements will act as agents for carbon storage, ESA said.

“With biomass, we are ready to have important new data on how much carbon is stored in the world’s forests, which helps fill our understanding of the carbon cycle and ultimately the Earth’s climate system,” said Simonetta Cheli, director of the Earth’s Earth Observation Program at ESA.

Once the radar takes measurements, the large grid reflector will receive data. It is then sent to the ESA's mission control center.

According to CBS News partner BBC News, the satellite is currently above the Amazon, one of several rainforests it will study.

Satellite tools can be used in other environments, including subsurface geology that maps “desert, ice cap structures and forest ground terrain,” ESA said.