by Much more methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, is being released from landfills and oil and gas operations around the world than governments realized, recent airborne and satellite surveys show. That’s a problem for the climate as well as human health. That’s also why the US government is tightening regulations on methane leaks and wasted venting, most recently from oil and gas wells on public lands.
The good news is that many of these leaks can be fixed – if they are caught quickly.
Riley Duren, a research scientist at the University of Arizona and a former NASA engineer and scientist, heads Carbon Mapper, a nonprofit that is planning a constellation of methane-monitoring satellites. Its first satellite, a partnership with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Earth imaging company Planet Labs, is launched in 2024.
Duren explained how new satellites are changing the ability of companies and governments to find and stop methane leaks and avoid wasting a valuable product.
Why are methane emissions such a concern?
Methane is the second most common global warming pollutant after carbon dioxide. It doesn’t stay in the atmosphere as long – only about ten years compared to hundreds of years for carbon dioxide – but it provides a huge surplus.
The ability of methane to warm the planet is almost 30 times that of carbon dioxide over 100 years, and more than 80 times over 20 years. You can think of methane as a very efficient heat trap in the atmosphere, warming the planet.
What is worrying many communities is that methane is also a health problem. It is a precursor to ozone, which can make asthma, bronchitis and other lung problems worse. And in some cases, methane emissions are accompanied by other harmful pollutants, such as benzene, a carcinogen.
In many oil and gas fields, less than 80% of the gas that comes out of the ground from a well is methane – the rest can be hazardous air pollutants that you don’t want anywhere near your home or school. But until recently, there has been little direct monitoring to find and stop leaks.
Why are satellites necessary to capture methane leaks?
In its natural form, methane is invisible and odorless. You probably wouldn’t know there was a huge methane plume right next door unless you had special tools to detect it.
Companies have traditionally accounted for methane emissions using a 19th-century method known as an inventory. Inventories calculate emissions based on reported production at oil and gas wells or the amount of trash that goes into landfills, where organic waste generates methane as it decomposes. Many errors can be made in accounting based on assumption; for example, it does not take into account unknown leaks or continuous releases.
Until recently, a technician was visiting a well pad every 90 days or so with a handheld infrared camera or computer gas analyzer with the state of the art in detecting leaks from oil and gas operations. But a large leak can release a huge amount of gas over a period of several days and weeks or it can occur in places that are not easily accessible, leaving many of the so-called super emitters undetected on them.
On the other hand, remote sensing satellites and airplanes can regularly survey large areas quickly. Some of the newer satellites, including the ones we’re launching through the Carbon Mapping Alliance, can zoom in on individual sites at high resolution, so we can find super emitters of methane to the well pad, the compressor station or part of a landfill. .
You can see an example of the power of remote sensing in our recent paper in the journal Science. We surveyed 20% of open landfills in the US with airplanes and found that emissions were on average 40% higher than emissions reported to the federal government using assumption-based accounting.
If scientists can monitor regions frequently and consistently from satellites, then they can pinpoint super emitter activity and notify the operator quickly so the operator can spot the problem while it’s still there. happening and fixing any leaks.
How do satellites detect methane from space?
Most satellites capable of detecting methane use some form of spectroscopy.
A typical camera sees the world in three colors – red, green and blue. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory developed the imaging spectrometers we use and see the world in nearly 500 colors, including wavelengths beyond the visible spectrum into infrared, which is essential for detecting and measuring greenhouse gases.
Greenhouse gases such as methane and carbon dioxide absorb heat in the infrared wavelengths – each has a unique fingerprint. Our technology analyzes sunlight reflected from the Earth’s surface to detect those infrared fingerprints of methane and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
These signatures are different from all the other gases, so we can image methane and carbon dioxide plumes to determine the origin of the individual emitters. When we use spectroscopy to measure the amount of gas in a particular plume, we can calculate an emission rate using wind speed data.
What can the new Carbon Mapper satellites launch plans that others have not yet?
Each satellite has different and often complementary capabilities. MethaneSat, launched by the Environmental Defense Fund in March 2024, is like a wide-angle lens that will provide a very accurate and complete picture of methane emissions over large landscapes. Our satellites will complement the MethaneSAT Carbon Mapping Alliance by acting like a collection of telephoto lenses – we’ll be able to zoom in to find individual methane emitters, such as zooming in on a bird nesting in a tree.
Working with our partners at Planet Labs and NASA, we plan to launch the first Carbon Mapping Alliance satellite in 2024, with the goal of expanding the constellation in the coming years to provide daily methane monitoring of high-priority regions across the deep For example, it is estimated that around 90% of methane emissions from fossil fuel production and use come from just 10% of the Earth’s surface. Therefore, we plan to focus Coalition Mapper Mapper satellites on oil, gas and coal producing basins; large urban areas with refineries, wastewater plants and landfills; and major agricultural regions.
How will your monitoring data be used?
We expect from experience sharing our aircraft data with facility operators and regulators that much of our satellite data will be used in the future to guide leak detection and repair efforts.
Many oil and gas companies, landfill operators and some large farms with methane digesters are encouraged to find leaks because methane in those cases is valuable and can be captured and used. So in addition to the impact on the climate and health, methane leakage represents the release of profits into the atmosphere.
With conventional satellite monitoring, we can quickly notify facility owners and operators so they can diagnose and fix any problems, and we can continue to monitor the sites to verify that leaks remain fixed .
Our data can also help warn nearby communities of risks, educate the public, and guide enforcement efforts in cases where companies are not voluntarily fixing their leaks. By measuring trends in high methane emission events over time and across basins, we can also contribute to assessments of whether policies are having the intended effect.
This article is republished from The Conversation, a non-profit, independent news organization that brings you facts and analysis to help you make sense of our complex world.
It was written by Riley Duren University of Arizona.
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Riley Duren is the CEO of the non-profit organization Carbon Mapper. Carbon Mapper receives funding from several philanthropic organizations as well as grants from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the US Environmental Protection Agency.
