Meet MethaneSAT, a satellite which will ‘name and shame’ methane emitters

March 5, 2024

Written by Alind Chauhan, The Indian Express, New Delhi

Methane is the second largest contributor to global warming, after carbon dioxide. MethaneSAT will identify how much methane is coming from where, who’s responsible, and are those emissions going up or down over time.

MethanSAT model. (Source: MethaneSAT)

MethaneSAT — a satellite which will track and measure methane emissions at a global scale — was launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon9 rocket from California on Monday (March 4).

While the washing-machine-sized satellite is not the first spacecraft to identify and quantify methane emissions, it will provide more details and have a much wider field of view than any of its predecessors.

Here is all you need to know about MethaneSAT.

But first, why do we need to track and measure methane emissions?

Methane is an invisible but strong greenhouse gas, and the second largest contributor to global warming after carbon dioxide, responsible for 30 per cent of global heating since the Industrial Revolution. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, over a period of 20 years, methane is 80 times more potent at warming than carbon dioxide.

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The gas also contributes to the formation of ground-level ozone — a colourless and highly irritating gas that forms just above the Earth’s surface. According to a 2022 report, exposure to ground-level ozone could be contributing to one million premature deaths every year.

Therefore, it is crucial to cut methane emissions. And the main culprit: fossil fuel operations, which account for about 40 per cent of all human-caused methane emissions. The objective of MethaneSAT is to help achieve this goal.

What is MethaneSAT?

The entity behind MethaneSAT is the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) — a US-based nonprofit environmental advocacy group. To develop the satellite, EDF partnered with Harvard University, the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, and the New Zealand Space Agency.

Essentially, MethaneSAT will orbit the Earth 15 times a day, monitoring the oil and gas sector. It will create a large amount of data, which will tell “how much methane is coming from where, who’s responsible, and are those emissions going up or down over time”, according to a statement by EDF.

The data collected by MethaneSAT will be made public for free in near real-time. This will allow stakeholders and regulators to take action to reduce methane emissions.

What are the features of MethaneSAT?

Historically, tracking the source of methane emissions and measuring them has been quite challenging.
While some satellites can provide high-resolution data, they can only scan specific, pre-targeted sites. Others can examine larger areas and detect large emitting events, but cannot scan “smaller sources that account for the majority of emissions in many, if not most, regions,” the EDF statement added.

Due to this discrepancy, according to an International Energy Agency (IEA) report, global methane emissions are about 70 per cent higher than levels reported by national governments.

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MethaneSAT is expected to fix the issue. Equipped with a high-resolution infrared sensor and a spectrometer, the satellite will fill critical data gaps. It can track differences in methane concentrations as small as three parts per billion in the atmosphere, which enables it to pick up smaller emissions sources than the previous satellites. MethaneSAT also has a wide-camera view — of about 200 km by 200 km — allowing it to identify larger emitters so-called “super emitters”.

A sample of MethaneSAT’s data. (Source: Google Earth Engine)

The collected data will be analysed using cloud-computing and AI technology developed by Google  — the company is a mission partner — and the data will be made public through Google’s Earth Engine platform, a report by The New York Times stated.

Why is it significant?

The launch of MethaneSAT has come at a moment when the world is implementing more stringent methane management policies. For instance, more than 150 countries signed the Global Methane Pledge in 2021, to cut their collective methane emissions by at least 30 per cent from 2020 levels by 2030. At last year’s COP, more than 50 companies committed to virtually eliminating methane emissions and routine flaring. MethaneSAT will help them meet these targets.

The satellite will also usher in a new era of transparency. Its publicly available data, which can be accessed by anyone in the world, will keep track of methane commitments made by governments and corporations.

However, it does not necessarily mean that the data will compel polluters to curb their emissions. Drew Shindell, an earth-science professor at Duke University who wasn’t involved with MethaneSAT, told The NYT: “There’s no guarantee that this information leads to a change in behaviour.”