Greenhouse gas emissions
Leaks are responsible for 30% of the climate crisis and MethaneSat will provide the first near-comprehensive global overview
A washing machine-sized satellite aims to “name and shame” the worst methane polluters in the oil and gas industry.
MethaneSat is scheduled to launch from California aboard a SpaceX rocket at 2 p.m. local time (22:00 GMT) on Monday. It will provide the first near-comprehensive global overview of leaks of the powerful greenhouse gas from the oil and gas sector, and all data will be published. It will provide high-resolution data over larger areas than existing satellites.
Methane, also known as natural gas, is responsible for 30% of the global warming that is causing the climate crisis. Leaks from the fossil fuel industry are a major source of human-caused emissions, and curbing them is the fastest way to curb temperature rises.
MethaneSat was developed by the Environmental Defense Fund, a US NGO, in collaboration with the New Zealand Space Agency and cost $88 million to build and launch. Previous EDF measurements from aircraft show that methane emissions were 60% higher than calculations published by US authorities and elsewhere.
More than 150 countries have signed a global methane commitment to reduce their gas emissions by 30% from 2020 levels by 2030. Some oil and gas companies have made similar pledges, and new regulations to limit methane leaks are being worked on in the US, EU, Japan and South Korea.
EDF Senior Vice President Mark Brownstein said: “MethaneSat is an accountability tool. I'm sure many people are thinking that this could be used to name and shame companies that have poor emissions records, and that's true. But [it] may [also] Help document the progress of leading companies in reducing their emissions.”
A sample of MethaneSat data. Photo: Google Earth Engine
The oil and gas industry knows how to stop leaks, and the cost of doing so is usually very low, said Steven Hamburg, EDF chief scientist and MethaneSat project leader: “Some call it low-hanging fruit.” I like to call it fruit, that are lying on the floor.”
Kelly Levin, the scientific director of the Bezos Earth Fund, which co-funded the project, said: “MethaneSat can see from the air what others cannot, by helping good actors and holding bad actors accountable.”
Revealed: 1,000 extremely emitting methane leaks risk triggering climate tipping points
The Guardian revealed more than 1,000 methane “super emitters” sites in March last year. The worst single leak involved gas escaping at a speed equivalent to that of cars traveling 220 feet (67 m). “Staggering” methane leaks from Turkmenistan were also discovered, prompting the government to promise action. These revelations were based on lower resolution data from the European Space Agency's Sentinel 5P satellite.
MethaneSat's instrument has a resolution of about 140 meters, compared to Sentinel 5P's about six kilometers (3.7 miles), allowing it to monitor the smaller leaks that together make up a large portion of the total. MethaneSat will orbit the Earth 15 times a day at an altitude of 590 km and collect data in a 200 km strip. “For the first time we will have empirical data for the entire oil and gas production system worldwide,” said Hamburg.
The first results after the commissioning process are expected at the beginning of the summer, with the full data flow available from early 2025. NASA's Emit mission also collects high-resolution data, although with less precise methane measurements than MethaneSat, which can detect changes as small as three parts per billion. Methane data from the commercial GHGSat is not freely available.
Experts believe MethaneSat will be the gold standard for methane measurements. It is expected to contribute to the United Nations' International Observatory on Methane Emissions, which will collect and publish data on leaks.
Hamburg said MethaneSat could also be used in the future to track methane from coal mines, landfills and agriculture, which are the other major sources of human-caused emissions. The Guardian revealed in February that there had been more than 1,000 major methane leaks from landfill sites since 2019.
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