Pinpointing the location of methane leaks using the frequent revisit and fine resolution of multispectral satellites.
Sudhanshu Pandey, SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, s.pandey@sron.nl (Presenter)
Joannes Dyonisius Maasakkers, SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, j.d.maasakkers@sron.nl
Ritesh Guatam, Netherlands Institute for Space Research, rgautam@edf.org
Pratik Sutar, SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, spratik316@gmail.com
Daniel Varon, Harvard University, danielvaron@g.harvard.edu
Ilse Aben, SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, i.aben@sron.nl
Ben Hmiel, Environmental Defense Fund, bhmiel@edf.org
David Lyon, Environmental Defense Fund, dlyon@edf.org
Satellite instruments can detect and quantify large methane emission events from anthropogenic activities in remote parts of the world, providing an effective methodology for mitigating future climate change. TROPOMI, with its daily global coverage, can detect large methane emissions around the world but is not suited to determine the exact location of leaks due to its relatively coarse measurement pixel size. Conversely, satellites like PRISMA, ZY1 and the GHGsat instruments can more precisely identify leak locations using their higher spatial resolution but are limited by their sparse coverage. Multispectral high-resolution satellites––LandSat-7, LandSat-8, Sentinel-2––can detect large emission events because the resulting methane enhancements at the small observation pixels produce sufficient methane absorption signal integrated within the broader SWIR bands (1.6 and 2.3 microns). The combined observations acquired routinely from these satellites have frequent global revisit times and are suited for monitoring large emission events around the world, and have the potential to enable identification of the exact location of methane leaks. We demonstrate these capabilities using the methane observations of multiple events including a large emission event in the Permian Basin. We estimate the period of the emission event as well as pinpoint the exact source location within a few meters of a leaking storage tank at a compressor station.
Poster: Poster_Pandey__107_25.pdf
Presentation Type: Poster
Session: 3.5b Observations to quantify hot spots and local/urban emissions
Session Date: Wednesday (6/16) 12:00 PM