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NASA Detects More Than 50
Methane 'Super-Emitter' Zones Around The World
A 3 km methane plume detected by NASA’s Earth
Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation mission, southeast of
Carlsbad, New Mexico.
(NASA/JPL-Caltech)
"EMIT will potentially find hundreds of
super-emitters – some of them previously spotted through air-, space-,
or ground-based measurement, and others that were unknown," NASA said.
Andrew Thorpe, a research technologist at the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory leading the EMIT methane effort, said some of the methane
plumes detected by EMIT are among the largest ever seen.
"Reining in methane emissions is key to
limiting global warming," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a
press release on Tuesday.
"This exciting new development will not
only help researchers better pinpoint where methane leaks are coming
from, but also provide insight on how they can be addressed –
quickly."
NASA said its Earth Surface Mineral Dust
Source Investigation (EMIT)
is designed to foster understanding of the effects of airborne dust on
climate.
But EMIT, which was installed on the
International Space Station in July and can focus on areas as small as
a soccer field, has also shown the ability to detect the presence of
methane.
A 4.8 kilometer long methane plume
south of Tehran, Iran. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)
NASA said more than 50
"super-emitters" of methane gas in Central Asia, the Middle East, and
the southwestern United States have been identified so far. Most of
them are connected to the fossil-fuel, waste or agriculture sectors.
Kate Calvin, NASA's chief scientist and
senior climate advisor,
said EMIT's "additional methane-detecting capability offers a
remarkable opportunity to measure and monitor greenhouse gases that
contribute to
climate change."
"Exceeds our expectations"
Methane is responsible for roughly 30
percent of the global rise in temperatures to date.
While far less abundant in the
atmosphere than CO2, it is about 28 times more powerful as
a greenhouse gas on a century-long timescale. Over a 20-year time
frame, it is 80 times more potent.
Methane lingers in the atmosphere for
only a decade, compared to hundreds or thousands of years for CO2.
This means a sharp reduction in
emissions could shave several tenths of a degree Celsius off of
projected global warming by mid-century, helping keep alive the Paris
Agreement goal of capping Earth's average temperature increase to 1.5
degrees Celsius, according to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).
"EMIT will potentially find hundreds of
super-emitters – some of them previously spotted through air-, space-,
or ground-based measurement, and others that were unknown," NASA
said.
Andrew Thorpe, a research technologist
at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory leading the EMIT methane effort, said
some of the methane plumes detected by EMIT are among the largest ever
seen.
"What we've found in a just a short time
already exceeds our expectations," Thorpe
said.
NASA said a methane plume about 2 miles
(3.3 kilometers) long was detected southeast of Carlsbad, New Mexico,
in the Permian Basin, one of the largest oilfields in the world.
It said 12 plumes from oil and gas
infrastructure were identified in Turkmenistan, east of the Caspian
Sea port city of Hazar.
A methane plume at least 3 miles (4.8
kilometers) long was detected south of Tehran from a major
waste-processing complex, NASA said.
©
Agence
France-Presse
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