Methane-spotting satellite that gives true readings of industry emissions hits skies in 2024
- Reference: 1689161472
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/07/12/methanesat_set_to_monitor_methane/
- Source link:
MethaneSAT is the name of the hardware and also the [1]organization that has developed it, the latter being a wholly owned subsidiary of the [2]Environmental Defense Fund , a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping combat climate change.
The org says the MethaneSAT satellite is now undergoing final testing and is scheduled to launch aboard a SpaceX [3]Falcon 9 rocket early next year.
[4]
According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), methane is more efficient at trapping heat than carbon dioxide, and the comparative impact of it is a whopping 28 times greater than carbon dioxide over a 100-year period, even though it persists in the atmosphere for a much shorter period.
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The sensitive imaging spectrometer instruments used to detect methane have also been deployed and tested aboard a jet aircraft that will use them to measure and track methane from sources such as [7]oil and gas operations across North America.
Dubbed MethaneAIR, the data from this will augment orbital data collection by MethaneSAT, the organization said, and the data from both instruments will be available at no cost.
[8]
The org says on its [9]website : "MethaneSAT will locate and quantify methane emissions from oil and gas operations almost anywhere on Earth and track progress over time. The data will enable both companies and countries to identify, manage and reduce their emissions, and allow investors, gas buyers and the public to see and compare results."
MethaneAIR was developed jointly by MethaneSAT, Environmental Defense Fund, Harvard University and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. It is carried by a leased aircraft adapted and operated by IO Aerospace.
The data from MethaneAIR is intended to provide detailed methane emissions information covering the US, a country that supplies significant amounts of liquefied natural gas (LNG) – which is typically 85 to 95 percent methane - to other regions, MethaneSAT states. In particular, it claims the EU is now the main destination for American LNG exports of 420 million cubic meters per day.
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This places a responsibility on the EU to reduce methane pollution by tackling emissions from imported fossil fuels, according to MethaneSAT.
"For fossil fuel importers like the European Union, this new level of transparency will catalyse methane mitigation through more informed buying decisions and the ability to track progress towards the EU’s climate goals," claimed Flavia Sollazzo, senior director of energy transition at Environmental Defense Fund Europe in a statement.
The imaging spectrometers of MethaneAIR and MethaneSAT will be capable of measuring methane in the atmosphere with much greater sensitivity, making it possible to determine total methane emissions over wide areas, the organization says. This will allow it to generate detailed maps of both large sources and the many smaller ones down to three parts per billion.
According to atmospheric scientist Steven Wofsy, MethaneSAT is set to be a more precise instrument than other methane-sensing satellites that have come before, allowing scientists to track emissions to their sources.
Wofsy, who is set to be MethaneSAT’s principal investigator, told [11]The Harvard Gazette that the project would also help to cut methane wasted by leaks, which provides a financial incentive for corporations to cooperate in halting them.
[12]Post-Brexit tariffs on cross EU-UK electrical vehicle imports still going ahead
[13]The AI arms race could give us the cool without the cruel
[14]On the bright side, solar investment finally set to surpass oil spending
[15]Climate agenda slips at TSMC, Greenpeace says
MethaneSAT will not be the only player in this game, with more than two dozen high-resolution methane detecting satellites expected to be in orbit by the end of this year.
The Rocky Mountain Institute, another nonprofit organization dedicated to sustainability, issued a [16]report on methane-detecting satellites earlier this year. It contrasted the European Space Agency’s TROPOMI, which can monitor an entire region or country, with the GHGSat-C1 satellite designed to provide high-resolution monitoring of individual industrial facilities.
MethaneSat will sit somewhere between the two, it said, providing high-resolution coverage of methane emissions regionally as well as down to the level of individual oil and gas facilities. ®
Get our [17]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.methanesat.org/
[2] https://www.edf.org/
[3] https://www.spacex.com/vehicles/falcon-9/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZK7OJ9YGgcmfJPiZb-YO2QAAAwU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZK7OJ9YGgcmfJPiZb-YO2QAAAwU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZK7OJ9YGgcmfJPiZb-YO2QAAAwU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climate-change-methane-idUSKCN24F2X8
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZK7OJ9YGgcmfJPiZb-YO2QAAAwU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://www.methanesat.org/
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZK7OJ9YGgcmfJPiZb-YO2QAAAwU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2023/03/methane-tracking-satellite-may-be-fastest-way-to-slow-climate-change/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/07/postbrexit_tariffs_on_electrical_vehicle/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/10/ai_arms_race/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2023/05/25/solar_investment_to_surpass_oil/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2023/05/09/tsmc_greenpeace/
[16] https://rmi.org/insight/intel-from-above-spotting-methane-super-emitters-with-satellites/
[17] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: So how long
Fewer cattle now than in 1900.
Vastly more road and air transport than 1900.
Vastly more power stations than 1900.
Vastly more polluting industry than 1900.
But certain sectors like to blame the cattle for everything.
Hopefully, this will be able to identify the major sources more easily.
===> Ex Deputy President of the National Federation of Young Farmers Clubs of England and Wales, but it's not the coat to watch out for, it's the fragrant Wellington Boots ;-)
Launch it on a Methane fuelled rocket. Either the Chinese Zhuque-2, or the SpaceX Starship. Hopefully any leaks won't overload the sensor.
The usual misinformation and obfuscation
The climate emergency is big news these days, but by and large the great unwashed aren't being treated to many actual facts.
It's long been known that methane is a much more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. However if you listen to most politicians, campaigners and self appointed "experts" in the media then you'd be forgiven for believing that carbon dioxide is the only greenhouse gas. Indeed according to most of what you read it's not carbon dioxide that's the problem, it's just plain carbon.
So what this satellite is going to do is give a lot of politicians, campaigners and "experts" a headache. They can't even differentiate between carbon dioxide and carbon so adding methane into the mix is going to make them look pretty stupid. As such I suspect they will report that the fact that methane is a greenhouse gas is a recent discovery.
Re: The usual misinformation and obfuscation
So what this satellite is going to do is give a lot of politicians, campaigners and "experts" a headache. They can't even differentiate between carbon dioxide and carbon so adding methane into the mix is going to make them look pretty stupid. As such I suspect they will report that the fact that methane is a greenhouse gas is a recent discovery.
I think that ship has long sailed. There are already carbon sensing satellites that measure CO2 concentrations. Oddly enough, they're high over the Amazon and Africa. Presumably due to all the illicit industry hidden in the jungles. Alternatively, it's pretty obvious why given it's basic biology. Hot, wet climates produce a lot of methane and CO2 because organic stuff decays faster than the most evangelical global warming zealot's braincells.. Which also makes it amusing when the EU wants to do stuff like bringing back wetlands. Londoners drained their swamps when they realised it'd help prevent the ague, now, 'environmentalists' are bringing that back.
The Dutch might be taking it to extemes by reducing their food production capacity to increase housing stock, but that's already cost them a slightly used prime minister. Good luck convincing India to slaughter all their cattle, and politicians may want to look at anthropogenic vs natural CO2 and methane emissions. Then wonder why the actual science shows CO2 and methane levels follow temperature, and don't lead them.
Re: The usual misinformation and obfuscation
Logically, if methane is so much worse than carbon dioxide, and one mole of methane combusts to give two moles of water and one mole of carbon dioxide, we'd be better off if we burnt all the methane!
I'm pretty sure that's not the message they're trying to get across, though...
satellite that can calculate emissions of this potent greenhouse gas with extreme accuracy
I suppose that's Friday night curries buggered, then.
So how long
Before the inevitable finger pointing news articles start with the fresh data showing who is really polluting the most
Summer 2024 or later?