New Satellite Launched to Monitor Emissions of Potent Greenhouse Gases

A satellite that is expected to change the way we look at global warming methane emissions from oil and gas production has launched from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base. The satellite, called MethaneSAT, will orbit the Earth 15 times a day and use infrared sensors to measure methane leaking from all the world's major production centers.

“We specifically designed MethaneSAT to accomplish one goal,” he says. stephen hamburger The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) is a nonprofit advocacy group that developed the satellite with a consortium of universities and aerospace companies. “To generate policy-relevant data to track methane emissions from the oil and gas industry around the world.”

Methane is the most important greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide. And oil, gas and coal production are among the largest sources of anthropogenic methane emissions. Many governments have set targets to reduce methane emissions by 30 percent by 2030, and at last year's COP28 climate change summit, many major oil and gas companies announced plans to reduce methane emissions by 30 percent by 2050. It pledged to reduce methane emissions to zero..

However, it is difficult to assess progress against these commitments. Current methane emissions remain poorly quantified, leaks are difficult to track, and aerial surveys and ground monitoring are expensive and some countries do not allow them. MethaneSAT joins a growing family of methane detection instruments in orbit, aiming to provide better visibility. Existing satellites, such as the European Space Agency's TROPOMI, detect methane emissions over large areas. Other devices, like the 11 methane detection devices operated by Canadian company GHGSat, focus on identifying specific point sources of methane.

In contrast, MethaneSAT regularly monitors methane at high resolution between these scales, allowing researchers to quantify emissions across regions associated with oil and gas production and identify possible sources. can be mapped. “We needed to be able to see all the emissions and resolve them in space,” Hamburg says.

When fully operational, the satellite will deliver up to 30 different “scenes” measuring methane fluxes over 40,000 square kilometers per day, according to the City of Hamburg. He said he will prioritize monitoring oil and gas producing regions such as the Permian Basin in West Texas, but will also be able to measure methane from other major sources such as agriculture, wetlands and landfills. “Methane is methane,” he says.

In parallel with the development of the satellite, Hamburg et al. are building a pipeline to rapidly convert the raw data it generates into publicly available estimates of methane emissions and the likely sources of plumes. was built. This includes a global database of oil and gas infrastructure. Created in partnership with Google Helps connect methane detection to its source.

“We're mapping the whole thing,” Hamburg says. He said the satellite will generate more data on methane emissions from oil and gas in its first year of operation than has been collected in the past 50 years. Full data collection is expected to begin in early 2025.

“The data is here and the technology is here to initiate action,” he says. Jean-François Gauthier GHGSat's hope is that MethaneSAT will help identify sources of emissions, allowing GHGSat's focused satellites to measure in more detail.

rob jackson Stanford University in California says the satellite can independently check emissions reported by companies and countries. “There will be nowhere to hide,” he says. The flood of data may also help explain the still-uncertain causes of the rise in methane rates since 2007, he added.

“The big question for me is how do people use that information,” Jackson says. “There's an assumption that if we had all the information, the emissions would somehow go away. But having information from aircraft and ground sources didn't stop these emissions.”