A wave of satellites set to orbit the Earth will be able to pinpoint producers of greenhouse gases, right down to an individual leak at an oil rig.

More than a dozen governments and companies have planned, or are planning, to launch satellites that measure concentrations of heat-trapping gases such as methane, which is blamed for about one quarter of man-made global warming. They are looking to track nations, industries, companies and even individual facilities to identify some of the biggest contributors to climate change.

‘Quick measure’

“Space-based technologies are allowing us for the first time to quickly and cheaply measure greenhouse gases,” said Mark Brownstein, a Senior Vice-President at Environmental Defense Fund, which plans to launch its MethaneSAT in 2021.

Regulators are taking note. California is partnering with Planet Labs on a satellite to help it pinpoint individual methane plumes from oil and gas facilities.

California was the site of the largest natural gas leak in US history in 2015 when a broken well outside Los Angeles owned by Sempra Energy released more than 100,000 tonnes of methane before being plugged, federal and university researchers said in a study published in Science the following year. The utility in August estimated costs associated with the leak at $1.01 billion.

Leaks constitute energy that could otherwise be sold. Oil and gas firms can cut 40-50 per cent of their methane emissions at no net cost, which in terms of climate impact, is the equivalent of shutting two-thirds of the coal-fired generation in Asia, according to Laura Cozzi, International Energy Agency’s chief energy modeller.

Reducing the amount of methane emitted by livestock means more nutrients are converted into meat, according to Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef Executive Director Ruaraidh Petre. One way to improve the efficiency of an animal’s life-cycle is through improving the quality of feed or pasture and introducing a certain type of seaweed into sheep’s diet has been shown to cut their methane emissions by 80 per cent, he said.

Better detection

The satellite projects are a mix of public and private efforts that vary from the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-5 Precursor satellite to Montreal-based GHGSat, which plans a constellation of satellites. ESA, whose craft launched in 2017, released a global map of methane offering insights into where the gas originated. The new satellites can detect invisible bands of the light spectrum, allowing for the identification of gases such as methane and carbon dioxide.

“Seeing exactly who is emitting what, where, how much and when is a must in order to reduce emissions and stop climate change,” said Yotam Ariel, founder of Bluefield Technologies, which plans to have its first gas-measuring micro-satellite in orbit by the end of next year.

Satellite start-ups

Bluefield is one of several start-ups entering the sector, including GHGSat and San Francisco-based Orbital Sidekick that will launch satellites and sensors to monitor leaks at oil and gas facilities.

The new crop of satellites have yet to demonstrate the accuracy required to monitor emissions from natural sources like wetlands, or the agricultural sector, but may be useful in helping identify and reduce large point source emissions, according to Lesley Ott, a research meteorologist at the National Aeronautics and Space Administrations Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

The cost to launch a 5-kg cubesat into low Earth orbit is as little as $295,000, according to the website of Seattle-based Spaceflight. Final costs can fluctuate depending on the orbit, timeframe, launch vehicle and other factors.

Tracking greenhouse gases by satellite is still in its infancy and it’s important to combine the data with ground-based calculations, according to Sentinel-5 Precursor Mission Manager Claus Zehner. Even clouds and air pollution can distort measurements, he said.

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