Summary/Abstract
Decreasing atmospheric methane emissions is an urgent priority to slow near-term climate change. Satellites have unique capabilities to pinpoint methane sources in support of climate action, but the current observing system is entirely in low-Earth orbit and thus has difficulty identifying and quantifying transient emissions.
In this peer-reviewed study, the authors demonstrate continuous 5-minute monitoring of large methane point sources with the U.S. Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites. The authors then apply this technique to quantify an extreme 3-hour methane release from a natural gas pipeline in Durango, Mexico. The authors also document other large methane releases from oil and gas infrastructure lasting less than 1 hour, which would be difficult to capture with low-Earth orbit observations. The authors suggest that their study’s results demonstrate the potential for continuous monitoring of large methane point sources from geostationary orbit.
Abstract
We demonstrate geostationary satellite monitoring of large transient methane point sources with the US Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES). GOES provides continuous 5- to 10-min coverage of the Americas at 1 to 2 km nadir pixel resolution in two shortwave infrared spectral bands from which large methane plumes can be retrieved. We track the full evolution of an extreme methane release from the El Encino—La Laguna natural gas pipeline in Durango, Mexico on 12 May 2019. The release lasted 3 h at a variable rate of 260 to 550 metric tons of methane per hour and totaled 1,130 to 1,380 metric tons. We report several other detections of transient point sources from oil/gas infrastructure, from which we infer a detection limit of 10 to 100 t h−1. Our results show that extreme releases of methane can last less than an hour, as from deliberate venting, and would thus be difficult to identify and quantify with low-Earth orbit satellites.