EGU2020-11404, updated on 10 Jan 2024
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-11404
EGU General Assembly 2020
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Daily Satellite Observations of Methane from Oil and Gas Production Regions in the United States

Pieternel Levelt1,2, Pepijn Veefkind1,2, Esther Roosenbrand3,2, John Lin4, Jochen Landgraf5, Barbara Dix3, and Joost de Gouw3,6
Pieternel Levelt et al.
  • 1KNMI, TUD, R&D Satellite Observations, De Bilt, Netherlands (levelt@knmi.nl)
  • 2University of Technology Delft, Delft, The Netherlands
  • 3Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, United States
  • 4Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, United States
  • 5SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, Utrecht, the Netherlands
  • 6Department of Chemistry, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, United States

Production of oil and natural gas in North America is at an all-time high due to the development and use of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. Methane emissions associated with this industrial activity are a concern because of the contribution to climate radiative forcing. We present new measurements from the space-based TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) launched in 2017 that show methane enhancements over production regions in the United States. Using methane and NO2 column measurements from the new TROPOMI instrument, we show that emissions from oil and gas production in the Uintah and Permian Basins can be observed in the data from individual overpasses. This is a vast improvement over measurements from previous satellite instruments, which typically needed to be averaged over a year or more to quantify trends and regional enhancements in methane emissions. In the Uintah Basin in Utah, TROPOMI methane columns correlated with in-situ measurements, and the highest columns were observed over the deepest parts of the basin, consistent with the accumulation of emissions underneath inversions. In the Permian Basin in Texas and New Mexico, methane columns showed maxima over regions with the highest natural gas production and were correlated with nitrogen-dioxide columns at a ratio that is consistent with results from in-situ airborne measurements. The improved detail provided by TROPOMI will likely enable the timely monitoring from space of methane and NO2 emissions associated with regular oil and natural gas production.

How to cite: Levelt, P., Veefkind, P., Roosenbrand, E., Lin, J., Landgraf, J., Dix, B., and de Gouw, J.: Daily Satellite Observations of Methane from Oil and Gas Production Regions in the United States, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-11404, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-11404, 2020.

This abstract will not be presented.