Everyone has heard of methane. It is an important part of the atmosphere in places like Uranus and Neptune. On Earth, it is also part of our atmosphere, where it works to heat things up. Some of it does from natural causes. But much of it comes from industrial super-emitters and other human-made processes. It’s not good because too much methane works, along with other greenhouse gases (like carbon dioxide, or CO2) to “superheat” our atmosphere.
In the right amounts, methane’s role in warming the atmosphere is perfectly normal. For humans, methane has other uses. It’s an important component of natural gas, used for everything from cooking to heating our homes and businesses. But methane releases from large industrial processes, landfill degassing, and oil and gas exploration are not normal. They all contribute to climate change.
How to monitor methane emissions? It turns out that this gas can be detected from space and has been for some time. Currently, a satellite called EMIT (for Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation) uses spectroscopic studies to find large clouds of methane. There are at least 50 methane “super-emitters” in the EMIT data, and their existence is cause for concern. Unfortunately, scientists expect to discover more over time.
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Super-emitters release methane into the atmosphere at very high rates. How high ? “Some of the plumes detected by EMIT are among the largest ever seen – unlike anything ever observed from space,” said Andrew Thorpe, a JPL researcher leading the EMIT methane effort. “What we have found in a short time already exceeds our expectations.”
Infamous super-emitters
EMIT has been busy. For example, he detected a plume about 3.3 kilometers long southeast of Carlsbad, New Mexico. It’s right above the Permian Basin, one of the largest oil fields in the world. EMIT also found 12 plumes of oil and gas infrastructure in Turkmenistan, some extending 32 kilometers. In Iran, near Tehran, there is a plume at least 4.8 kilometers long. It blows from a waste treatment plant. These are all known super-emitters.
The gas flows into the atmosphere from these sites are appalling. In the Permian basin, the flow is 18,300 kilograms per hour. The plumes from Turkmenistan send a total of 50,400 kilograms per hour into the atmosphere. It’s roughly similar to a gas leak at the 2015 Aliso Canyon event in California. It sent 50,000 kilograms per hour through the air at various times and was one of the largest releases of methane gas in US history.
Reduction of methane gas emissions
The fight to reduce greenhouse gases is important in the effort to slow down global warming. Scientists use ground-based methods to find methane emissions. However, space-based detectors provide a clearer view of where this and other gases are polluting the atmosphere.
“Controlling methane emissions is essential to limit global warming. This exciting new development will not only help researchers better identify the origin of methane leaks, but will also provide insight into how they can be addressed quickly,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “The International Space Station and more than two dozen NASA satellites and instruments in space have long been invaluable in determining changes in Earth’s climate. EMIT is proving to be an essential tool in our toolbox for measuring this powerful greenhouse gas – and stopping it at the source.
While the CO2 is the main greenhouse gas in the news most of the time, methane is also critically important to regulate. It accounts for a smaller fraction of man-made greenhouse gas emissions than CO2. However, methane is about 80 times more effective at trapping heat in the atmosphere for 20 years after release. It also stays in the atmosphere for shorter periods of time, compared to CO2. Its short lifespan in our air has an advantage. If we can reduce methane emissions, the atmosphere will improve faster. This leads to a slower warming cycle in the short term.
Find more methane super-emitters
EMIT will probably find many more super-emitters. “As it continues to study the planet, EMIT will observe places where no one has thought to look for greenhouse gas emitters before, and it will find plumes no one expects,” said Robert Green, EMIT Principal Investigator at JPL. The mission is the first of a new class of spaceborne imaging spectrometers to study Earth. Another is the Carbon Plume Mapper (CPM), designed to detect methane and CO2. JPL is working with a non-profit organization, Carbon Mapper, and other partners to launch two CPM-equipped satellites in late 2023.
Identifying point sources of methane is an important step in the process of reducing greenhouse gases. EMIT provides information on the locations of large transmitters, giving operators of super-transmitter installations the ability to act quickly. The ultimate goal is to reduce or even eliminate the release of methane into our already warming atmosphere.
EMIT observations are not the first to detect methane emissions on Earth. GHGSat, which is a private company that monitors these emissions from space, has spotted leaks from the Nordstream pipeline between Denmark and Sweden. The pipeline was sabotaged and released methane at 79,000 kg per hour.
For more information
Methane ‘super-emitters’ mapped by NASA’s New Earth space mission
US Methane ‘Hot Spot’ Is a Snapshot of Local Pollution
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