Trio of Sentinel satellites map methane super-emitters

In the quest to address climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, detecting methane leaks—a potent contributor to global warming—has become increasingly vital. Researchers are harnessing the capabilities of ...
Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas and is the second-largest contributor to climate warming after carbon dioxide.

A ton of methane, despite its shorter lifespan of about 10 years in the atmosphere, can retain an astounding 30 times more heat than a ton of carbon dioxide over the course of a century. This means that when it comes to warming our planet, methane is a potent player.

But here's the good news: because methane doesn't stick around as long as carbon dioxide, it provides us with an opportunity to take relatively swift climate action. If we reduce , we can actually see a tangible reduction in global methane levels within just a decade. This, in turn, helps to mitigate the enhanced greenhouse effect.
Now, let's talk about 'super-emitters.' While methane emitters refer to any source of methane ranging from natural processes like wetlands or human activities such as agriculture, methane super-emitters release a disproportionately large amount of methane compared to other emitters.

These are typically found among , such as oil and gas operations, , or even landfills, that have equipment or infrastructure issues leading to significant .

Global overview showing the location and magnitude of all 2,974 methane super-emitter plumes detected in 2021 using the Copernicus Sentinel-5P Tropomi instrument. The Tropomi instrument onboard the Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite is the only satellite instrument that produces a global map of methane concentrations every day. Researchers from SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research have announced a new algorithm that automatically discovers methane super-emitter plumes in Sentinel-5P data using machine learning. Credit: ESA/SRON
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The image featured here shows one of the methane super-emitter plumes detected in a cluster of detections at an oil exploitation site in Libya, as observed by Copernicus Sentinel-5P on 26 July 2021. An observation made with GHGSat satellites, targeted based on Tropomi detections in the area, reveal emissions from an unlit flare. Credit: ESA (Data: GHGSat/contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2021), processed by ESA)
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This image shows the tiered satellite observation of a methane leak in Algeria on 4 January 2020. Near the Hassi Messaoud oil/gas field in Algeria, researchers from the SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research identified a continuous methane emission from a leaking facility for six days. The methane plume, detected by Sentinel-5P over Algeria on 4 January 2020, extended for more than 200 km northeast. The team used a Sentinel-2 image to zoom in on the plumes’ origins and pinpointed the exact location of the leak to be an oil/gas well, while Sentinel-3 showed the leak continued for six days. In a recent paper published in Remote Sensing of Environment, researchers found that the Sentinel-3 satellites can retrieve methane enhancements from its shortwave infrared band measurements. Impressively, it can detect the largest methane leaks of at least 10 tonnes per hour, depending on factors like location and wind conditions, every single day. This puts it in a unique position to identify and monitor methane leaks. Credit: SRON/JPL (Data: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2020), processed by ESA)
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