New NASA tool helps detect ‘super-emitters’ of methane from space

Using a tool developed to study how dust affects climate, NASA scientists have identified more than 50 locations around the world that emit large amounts of methane, a development that could help combat the potent greenhouse gas .

“Reducing methane emissions is key to limiting global warming,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a news release Tuesday.

“This exciting new development will not only help researchers better pinpoint where methane leaks are coming from, but also provide insight into how to fix them – and fast.”

NASA said its Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT) aims to advance understanding of the effects of airborne dust on climate.

But EMIT, which was installed on the International Space Station in July and can focus on areas as small as a soccer field, has also demonstrated the ability to detect the presence of methane.

NASA said more than 50 “super-emitters” of methane gas have been identified so far in Central Asia, the Middle East and the southwestern United States. Most of them are related to the fossil fuel, waste or agriculture sectors.

Kate Calvin, NASA’s chief scientist and senior climate advisor, said the “additional methane detection capability of EMIT provides a remarkable opportunity to measure and monitor greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change.”

“Exceeds our expectations”

Methane has so far been responsible for around 30 percent of global temperature rise.

Although it is far less common in the atmosphere than CO₂, it is about 28 times more potent than a greenhouse gas on a century-long timescale. It is 80 times stronger over a 20-year period.

Methane stays in the atmosphere for only a decade, compared to hundreds or thousands of years for CO₂.

This means that a sharp reduction in emissions could save projected global warming by tens of degrees Celsius by mid-century, which would help keep alive the Paris Agreement target of raising the average temperature of the earth to 1.5° C according to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). ).

“EMIT will potentially find hundreds of superemitters — some previously discovered by airborne, space-based, or ground-based measurements, others unknown,” NASA said.

Andrew Thorpe, a research technologist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory who leads the EMIT methane effort, said some of the methane plumes detected by EMIT are among the largest ever seen.

“What we have found in just a short time is already exceeding our expectations,” said Thorpe.

NASA said a methane plume about 3.3 kilometers long has been spotted southeast of Carlsbad, New Mexico, in the Permian Basin, one of the world’s largest oil fields.

In Turkmenistan, east of the Caspian Sea port of Hazar, 12 plumes of smoke from oil and gas infrastructure have been identified.

A methane plume at least 4.8 kilometers long has been detected south of Tehran from a large waste processing complex, NASA said.

© 2022 AFP