![\"methaneSAT\"](\"https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/29181220\/SEI_193843840.jpg?width=1200\")
<\/div>An artist\u2019s impression of MethaneSAT<\/p>\n
Environmental Defense Fund\/NASA<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n
A satellite expected to transform our view of planet-warming methane emissions from oil and gas production has launched from the Vandenburg Space Force Base in California.\u00a0Called MethaneSAT, the satellite will orbit the planet 15 times per day, using infrared sensors to measure<\/a>\u00a0methane leaking from all of the world\u2019s major production centres.<\/p>\n \u201cWe designed MethaneSAT explicitly to serve one goal,\u201d says Steven Hamburg<\/a> at the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), the non-profit advocacy group that developed the satellite along with a consortium of universities and aerospace firms. \u201cTo produce policy-relevant data to track methane emissions from the oil and gas industry, globally.\u201d<\/p>\n Methane is the most significant greenhouse gas behind carbon dioxide. And oil, gas and coal production are among the largest sources of anthropogenic methane emissions. Many governments have set targets to slash methane emissions<\/a> by 30 per cent by 2030, and at the COP28 climate summit last year, a number of large oil and gas companies pledged <\/a>to zero out all methane emissions from their operations by 2050.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n But assessing progress towards those pledges is difficult. Current methane emissions remain poorly quantified, leaks are challenging to track and aerial surveys and on-the-ground monitoring are expensive \u2013 and some countries don\u2019t allow them. MethaneSAT joins a growing constellation of methane-sensing instruments in orbit aiming to provide a better view. Existing satellites, like the European Space Agency\u2019s TROPOMI, sense methane emissions across large regions. Others, like the 11 methane-sensing instruments run by Canadian company GHGSat, focus on identifying specific point sources of methane.<\/p>\n In contrast, MethaneSAT will regularly monitor methane at high resolution in between these scales, enabling researchers to quantify emissions across the areas relevant to oil and gas production as well as map their probable sources. \u201cWe needed to be able to see all the emissions and resolve them in space,\u201d says Hamburg.<\/p>\n Once running full bore, the satellite will deliver up to 30 different 40,000 square kilometre \u201cscenes\u201d of measured methane flux per day, according to Hamburg. He says they will prioritise monitoring oil and gas production regions \u2013 such as the Permian basin in west Texas \u2013 but will also be able to measure methane from other major sources<\/a> like agriculture, wetlands and landfills. \u201cMethane is methane,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Along with developing the satellite, Hamburg and his colleagues have produced a pipeline to rapidly turn the raw data it generates into publicly available estimates of the amount of methane emissions, and the probable sources of plumes. This includes a global database of oil and gas infrastructure created in partnership with Google<\/a> to help link detections of methane with their sources.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re mapping the whole thing,\u201d says Hamburg. He says the satellite will generate more data on methane emissions from oil and gas in its first year of operation than was collected over the past 50 years. Full data collection is expected to begin in early 2025.<\/p>\n \u201cThe data is here, and the technology is here to start taking action,\u201d says Jean-Francois Gauthier<\/a> at GHGSat, who expects MethaneSAT will help identify sources of emissions that GHGSat\u2019s focused satellites can then measure in more detail.<\/p>\n Rob Jackson<\/a> at Stanford University in California says the satellite will provide an independent check on emissions reported by companies and countries. \u201cThere will be nowhere to hide,\u201d he says. The flood of data could also help explain the still-uncertain source<\/a> of rising rates of methane since 2007, he adds.<\/p>\n \u201cThe big question for me is how people will use the information,\u201d says Jackson. \u201cThere\u2019s an assumption out there that once we have all the information the emissions will go away somehow. But having information from aircraft and on-the-ground sources has not stopped those emissions.\u201d<\/p>\n Topics:<\/p>\n<\/section><\/div>\n