- 1Harvard University, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Cambridge, United States of America
- 2Environmental Defense Fund (EDF)
MethaneSAT is a satellite that observes the total column dry-air mole fraction of methane (XCH4) at high spatial resolution (100 m x 400 m) and precision (20 - 40 ppb) over target areas of 200 km x 200 km. Its observations uniquely enable the simultaneous quantification of discrete point and dispersed area methane sources within a single scene, addressing a critical gap in space-based methane monitoring. The mission focuses on characterizing methane emissions from the oil and gas industry, targeting over 80% of the sector’s global emissions.
We present methane observations from MethaneSAT and showcase a methodology to quantify sources within the target area. Emissions of discrete point sources causing distinct methane plumes are quantified using the Divergence Integral algorithm1. Additionally, an inverse modeling approach, informed by atmospheric transport simulated with the Stochastic Time Inverted Lagrangian Transport (STILT)2 model, is employed to constrain the magnitude and location of dispersed sources.
1Chulakadabba et al., 2023: Methane point source quantification using MethaneAIR: a new airborne imaging spectrometer
2Lin et al., 2003: A near-field tool for simulating the upstream influence of atmospheric observations: The Stochastic Time-Inverted Lagrangian Transport (STILT) model
How to cite: Knapp, M., Benmergui, J., Kyzivat, E., Zhang, Z., Sargent, M., Roche, S., Miller, C. C., Ayvazov, S., Russi, M., and Wofsy, S. C.: MethaneSAT: Quantifying Discrete and Dispersed Methane Sources on Basin-Scales, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-3528, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-3528, 2025.
