SITUATION:
A $100 million Carbon Mapper project can now detect Greenhouse Gas leaks.
Use of Satellites will measure gases in the air;
Be able to also detect chemical signatures for excess salts or fungus on the ground.
And measures intensity of green chlorophyll;
Researchers will be able to evaluate the health of crops and forests.
Can also prospect for minerals in remote regions.
SIGNIFICANCE:
Oil & gas producers burn off methane to prevent leaks from escaping.
New satellites can now look for such leaks as they happen. .
Potential to “shake up” the field of greenhouse gas monitoring & verification
Satellites would be immediately useful for tracking fugitive methane emissions.
Means now have more than 80 times the warming power of CO2 emissions.
California company Planet already operates constellation of Earth-imaging satellites
SOLUTIONS:
Being Financed by private philanthropists including Michael Bloomberg.
Advances efforts to track concentrated emissions of greenhouse gases.
Will track rises from fossil fuel power plants, leaky pipelines, and abandoned wells.
Satellites have lacked the resolution and focus to monitor point sources rigorously.
California & partners set to launch by 2023 two satellites.
Seeks to spot & monitor plumes of planet-warming carbon dioxide (CO2) & methane
SEZ:
““We’re going after the big emitters,” The ultimate goal is to be “like the weather service for methane and CO2.”
— Riley Duren, Carbon Mapper’s CEO & remote-sensing scientist at the University of Arizona.
“The announcement has the potential to “shake up” the field of greenhouse gas monitoring and verification”
– Ray Nassar, an atmospheric scientist
SOURCES:
“California to hunt greenhouse gas leaks and superemitters with monitoring satellites” – https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/04/california-hunt-greenhouse-gas-leaks-and-super-emitters-monitoring-satellites?utm_campaign=news_weekly_2021-04-16&et_rid=714460824&et_cid=3737714
Author of Source Article – Paul Voosen, pvoosen@aaas.org
