Satellites can now detect methane ‘super-emitters’

In 2024, two new satellites were launched to detect methane super-emitters from space: the Environmental Defense Fund’s Methanesat Take off in March 2024; And Carbon MapperLaunched late last year as a public-private partnership.

Methane is a super-powerful greenhouse gas. Pound-for-pound, methane 80 times Stronger than carbon dioxide in the first two decades after release. It has been concentrated for the last two centuries More than doubleIncreases much faster than carbon dioxide. Methane concentrations are rising faster than at any time since records began.

Global methane emissions are also influenced by human activities much more than carbon dioxide. More than that 60 percent Global methane emissions come from human activities: fossil fuel extraction; raising cows that burp (not ditch); Dumping of garbage at our landfills and waste treatment sites.

The good news is that only a small fraction of sites are responsible for that pollution Methane emissions are influenced by so-called super-emitters: 5 percent benefit A given oil and gas field or industry yields more than half of all methane emissions. Eliminate these emissions and we’ll substantially curb methane pollution worldwide.

Methanesat and Carbon Mapper circle the Earth in a polar orbit in a north-south direction. As the planet spins beneath them—like a basketball spinning on your finger—they see a different band of potential emission sites on each pass.

Methanesat’s vision is broader than Carbon Mapper’s. The pixel images it captures are 15,000 square miles, roughly the size of Montana’s Glacier National Park. This would be good for detecting methane hot spots. Carbon Mapper, by contrast, is like your camera’s zoom. This would isolate individual sources at the scale of a football field, attributing methane plumes to single sources (and single owners) in the soil.

There’s one caveat: Both of these satellites need sunlight to see Earth. It could also allow unscrupulous owners of oil and gas companies to direct their crews to maintain facilities at night, when such satellites cannot see them. Now I don’t believe most oil and gas company owners are unscrupulous, but some of them are and, in 2025, they will be night-owls upon us.

In any case, gone are the days when massive gas leaks like the 2015 blowout at Los Angeles’ Aliso Canyon natural gas storage field would go unreported for weeks. The blowout sickened nearby residents, led to nearly 10,000 evicted families from SoCalGas leading to a $1.8 billion settlement and eventual release. 97,000 metric tons of methaneLargest gas leak in US history.

In 2025, these satellites will allow us to track down the world’s biggest polluters. We will be able to see into coal mines and oil and gas fields in remote corners of the world and countries where we are not allowed to operate today, such as Russia’s Raspadskaya coal mine and China’s Qingshui Basin.

We’ll find super-emitters in the US too, and some Fortune 500 executives will have egg on their faces. Big oil companies like ExxonMobil and Chevron and their subsidiaries will be flagged for pollution in the Permian Basin in West Texas and the Bakken oil fields in North Dakota. Landfill, feedlot and wastewater treatment operators will also be embarrassed In 2025, the “most wanted” methane polluters will have nowhere to hide.