MethaneSAT: Measuring Climate Action with Satellite Detection of Gas and Oil Emissions in the Outback of the Fermilab Eruption

A crowd of people, including scientists, engineers, and their families, erupted in celebration, four miles away from the launch site. They were applauding largely for one satellite on board: MethaneSAT, which is built to detect methane. That’s a gas that in the short term packs an even bigger planet-warming punch than carbon dioxide.

The goal is to quickly see how much methane is escaping and from where, so that measures might be taken to plug all those leaks. Carbon dioxide is 100 times more potent than methane when it comes to heating the planet, but only for the first 20 years after entering the atmosphere.

Google announced a partnership with EDF last month to create a global map of methane pollution from oil and gas infrastructure. The company is training an artificial intelligence to spot pump jacks, well pads, and storage tanks in satellite imagery like it does with street signs. Matching that infrastructure to emissions data from MethaneSAT might be able to help regulators pinpoint where there are leaks.

If this mission is successful, it could be a game-changer by allowing policymakers to assess how much progress they’re making on climate action based on real-world measures of pollution rather than estimates based on companies self-reporting their emissions.

“What we’ve learned over our decade of doing field measurements is that actually, when you measure actual emissions in the field, it turns out that the total magnitude of emissions coming from the industry is much higher than what’s being reported by them using engineering calculations,” Mark Brownstein, EDF senior vice president of energy transition, said during a press briefing on Friday.

MethaneSAT: a public study of the oil and gas industry and the role of governmental, third-party remote sensing technologies

Building and launching the satellite cost $88 million, according to EDF. The Bezos Earth Fund gave EDF a $100 million grant in 2020 to help get MethaneSAT off the ground, making it one of the project’s biggest funders. MethaneSAT also marks the New Zealand’s Space Agency’s first government-funded space mission.

A rocket carrying dozens of satellites soared into the sky on Monday just off the coast of California, in close proximity to some oil platforms.

A culture of confidentiality has been a tradition of the oil and gas industry, according to Halff. He states that they like to keep their data private. “There’s, I think, a cultural discomfort with the transparency provided by independent monitoring.”

The public will be able to see data that is free once the satellite is fully operational in the coming months. An unbiased view of oil and gas operations can be obtained, thanks to that project, according to a professor who didn’t get involved with the project.

“We don’t have to ask the oil companies for permission to go on site to make a measurement, right?” Brandt says.

But focusing on the oil and gas sector was strategic, Hamburg says. Oil and gas has a concentrated number of players, with bigger budgets to clean up their operations. He says that the ability to fix it is much better and is cost-effective.

The hope is that regulators will use this data, Hamburg says. “There’s interest. He says that there’s conversations all over the world, not just with the EPA.

A spokesperson for the EPA said in an emailed statement that the EPA’s new rule “has a mechanism for third-party notifiers using approved remote sensing technologies to be certified – enabling them to notify EPA of methane super-emitter events.” Methane releases can results in super-emitter events. “EDF, along with other owners of remote sensing technologies, may apply to be certified,” the EPA said.

According to the American Petroleum Institute vice president, the industry has used their own satellites and technologies in the past to identify and reduce methane emissions.

The markets are under threat and that is something the industry recognizes. “So, if you’re going to compete in a world in which the demand is going down, you want to prove that you’re a better actor.”