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LEvery month, scientists are working with data from Tropomi, a monitoring instrument onboard the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-5 satellite, Some startling findings were published. The journal allows you to write ScienceThe team reported that they had discovered 1,800 cases of methane releases into the atmosphere at more than 25 tonnes per hour in 2019 and 2020. According to the team, two-thirds of these leaks came from oil and other gas facilities. They were concentrated over the largest oil basins and major transmission pipelines.
Launched in 2017, Tropomi has been a huge step forward for scientists researching methane, being the first instrument in space that can see plumes of methane emissions directly, says Lena Höglund-Isaksson, a methane researcher at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis . The instrument led to the discovery of, for example, Huge methane leakage in TurkmenistanShe says that researchers did not know of this before.
These methane emissions are just a small part of the methane iceberg. “The current constellation of satellites in orbit around the planet today can see about 10% of the methane emissions of oil and gas on the planet,” says Riley Duren, chief executive of Carbon MapperArizona University researcher who co-wrote this paper. “The remaining 90% of these oil and gas methane emissions are below the detection limit of that satellite, but they won’t stay undetected for long.”
It is becoming a global imperative to better detect where methane is coming in. An AnalyseLast month from International Energy AgencyIt was found that methane emissions from coal, oil, and gas are 70% higher than what governments report. If the world is ever going to achieve significant reductions of this gas, it needs to know where it’s coming from.
Many new satellites with higher resolutions will be launched over the next few years. MethaneSatThe launch of, is scheduled by the US nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund(EDF), in early 2023. The first two satellites of Carbon Mapper, in late 2023. Plans to have a whole “constellation” of them in orbit by 2025.
These satellites will allow an unprecedented tracking of the sources of this potent greenhouse gas and, it’s hoped, ultimately help to stop the emissions occurring in the first place.
After CO, methane is the second-largest contributor to climate change.2However, climate action has received less attention until recently. “Historically, the world has focused so much on stabilising the climate in the long term and the way to do that is to reduce CO2 emissions,” says Ilissa Ocko, a climate scientist at the EDF.
Methane is far more persistent in the atmosphere than CO, but it lasts much longer.2It is a more potent greenhouse gas in the short-term. It is now more than 80 times more powerful than CO twenty years after its release.2After 100 years, the figure drops to about 30 percent. This means that methane can have a significant impact on global temperature in the short-term.
Methane emissions have been rising – they In 2017, the increase was around 8-10%. The sixth assessment report was published last year. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate ChangeWarning: Anthrogenic (human-caused methane) is a potential danger Responsible for approximately 25% of the 1.1C WarmingToday, we are witnessing a lot of things. UN reportLast year, it was predicted that reducing methane emissions to 45% would reduce global warming to 0.3C by 2040s. The world’s ability to keep global temperature rise below 1.5C will depend on how aggressively we tackle methane.
“Up until relatively recently, we really didn’t have a full understanding of just how much of an impact methane was having on our climate,” says Jonathan Banks, international director for super pollutants at the Clean Air Task Force. “[But] methane, because it’s a short-lived climate pollutant, gives us an opportunity to actually slow down warming. Because it’s not just how warm the planet gets, but it’s also how fast we heat up that matters.”
After decades of focusing exclusively on CO for decades2Last year More than 100 countries have signed up for a pledgeThe Cop26Climate change conference to cut global methane emissions 30% by 2030, compared with 2020 levels. “It was really exciting to see us really turn a corner on methane awareness and methane action,” says Ocko. “To have a separate target for methane is just huge.” She reckons the target is as ambitious as it could have been to get more than 100 countries to sign on, although more could be done with available technologies.
Methane is difficult to trace. “If countries want to meet these 30% reduction targets, then we have to have some kind of way to verify it,” says Höglund-Isaksson.
The vast majority of methane emissions on the planet from human activity remain “invisible” today because they’re not being monitored – at least not comprehensively and not regularly, says Duren.
Wetlands are naturally a good choice. A huge source of methaneThese emissions were still significant, but they are now greatly outnumbered by man-made greenhouse gasses from fossil fuel production, waste, and agriculture.
Agriculture is The largest man-made source methaneMost of it comes from cows (which emit methane through their burps as well as their manure). rice(which emits methane in flood situations). These are already being addressed. Different systems of rice productionTo The many possible ways that cows can stop releasing so much methane(or simply Reduce your meat consumption completely). The problem here is not so much detection as it is action. However, because of the scattered nature of agriculture, this will be a slow ship.
Landfills can also release large amounts of methane. But there are solutions. You can capture and use landfill gasThis also includes Reduces local air pollution. Banks believes that identifying large methane-releasing sites from space will help to direct international attention to these sites and ultimately money.
However, StudyThe EDF published last year a study that found that the fossil fuel industry has the greatest potential to reduce methane emissions quickly and easily. The study showed that 50% of methane emissions from oil and gas could be reduced by 2030 without incurring any additional costs. Ocko states that the study found that approximately 25% of global methane omissions could be reduced by cost-effective measures. This would bring the world closer to the 30% target.
Methane, the main component of natural gases, is released into the atmosphere by the oil and gas industry when natural gas is not combusted to CO.2. There are three main sources: intentional methane gas venting; incomplete flaring, in which gas is intentionally burned rather than sold but does not fully transform to CO.2; and unintentional “fugitive” emissions from accidental leakages, such as through a faulty seal. Coalmining also releases significant amounts of methane, as methane near coal is often found. Ventilated to prevent explosions
Ocko states that detection technology is a key tool in plugging oil and gas leaks. “Sometimes, just tightening a valve or replacing a gasket or tuning an engine – it’s really simple plumbing that you can do to prevent these leaks from occurring. The challenge is just knowing where these are.”
The methane pledge Cop26This has given an impetus to efforts to reduce emissions. However, scientists and non-profit organizations are far ahead of politicians in terms of how to achieve this. They have been working hard for years to develop the next step in methane detectors: a new generation satellites that will give a better understanding of where methane is being released on the planet.
“Over the next two to three years, you’re going to see an expanding constellation of methane monitoring satellites that will give us a more expansive view of the methane iceberg,” says Duren. These satellites will provide unprecedented information about the location of methane emitted, and will help operators and decision-makers to reduce it.
Satellites
The first of these is EDF’s MethaneSat, set to start delivering data in 2023. Ocko says MethaneSat will be able to capture leaks with unprecedented precision than Tropomi. It will be able capture leaks at a rate of 5kg per hour and per sq km, far lower than Tropomi’s 25 tonnes an hour.
“It will provide information for how much emissions are coming from a certain area, that then can be aggregated for specific countries, so you’ll be more informed about what your baseline emissions are,” says Ocko. “You will also be notified when there are large leaks, [or if] there’s something all of a sudden unusual that happened. And so you could go in and determine the source and fix it as soon as possible instead of letting it leak continuously.”
MethaneSat will be especially useful to better understand methane coming out of parts of the globe where it is more difficult to fly an aircraft with a sensor, like Russia. “[It] will have unprecedented precision for identifying those sources of methane globally and so that will be really helpful in terms of completing the puzzle further in terms of what emissions are globally from oil and gas.”
Carbon Mapper’s satellites, meanwhile, will be able to focus on individual methane sources with a spatial resolution of just 30 metres (98ft). Its ultimate goal is to provide “daily to weekly monitoring of all of the high-emitting regions around the planet and to make that methane data and CO2 data publicly available,” says Duren. Carbon Mapper plans to increase satellite detection to around 90% of oil and gas sector leaks once all 20 satellites have been placed in orbit by the mid-2020s.
Banks says that the great thing about both satellites being up together is their complementarity. EDF’s MethaneSat is more like a wide-angle lens, he says, and will see a lot more of the planet. Carbon Mapper’s satellites, meanwhile, are more like a telephoto lens, allowing a zoomed-in view of specific sources. “So they work together. I think they will dramatically change our perception of this problem.”
Getting to the level where we can detect emissions directly from the sites begins to make it possible for governments to hold individual companies responsible for emissions, says Höglund-Isaksson, and to verify whether emissions are continuing. She points out that until now, there was no way for sites to be continuously monitored. “We were stumbling in the dark a bit because we didn’t have any way to verify emissions at the source level,” she says of her work looking at the origins of methane emissions.
Other methods are available to detect methane emission sources. Handheld optical gas imaging camerasRemote sensing measurements made from planes. Ann Stavert, a scientist at The University of Massachusetts, said that these networks will be more sensitive to small, local-scale emissions. Global Carbon Project The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation’s Oceans and Atmosphere DepartmentAustralia. “Satellites have an important role to play, but expansion of ground-based observations will be just as important,” she says. “There is no magic bullet in terms of methane observation infrastructure – a range of approaches is needed.”
As global leaders work to reduce methane emissions for climate purposes, it will become increasingly important to understand the source of methane. “It’s been said many times before: you can’t manage what you don’t measure,” says Duren. “The truth today is that the vast majority of methane emissions on the planet from human activity remain invisible.”
Our kitchens are leaking methane
Although it may not be visible by satellite, researchers have identified another source of methane. A This January, studyIt was found that gas stoves in 40 million homes in the US release methane via incomplete combustion during cooking and leakage when the stove’s turned off.
Stavert states that any reduction in greenhouse gas emissions is a good thing. However, with less than 0.1% US methane emitted, it is possible that gas stoves only contribute a small percentage of total emissions. But, burning gas also produces CO.2She says that electric cooking is still a great way to reduce carbon.
Another problem with gas stoves: Tens of millions of Americans who use gas stoves to cook are likely to be exposed indoors to levels of nitrogen dioxide pollution that would make cooking illegal if they were outside. 2020 report found.
