After years of collaboration between some tech giants, a mission to map and track global methane pollution, a powerful greenhouse gas, is set to launch today. Dubbed MethaneSat, the satellite has received funding and support from the likes of Jeff Bezos, Google and SpaceX.
The Methane satellite is expected to launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 2:05 pm Pacific time today. Liftoff will be broadcast live on the SpaceX website and the company’s X profile. The nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund, which is developing the Methane Satellite, has also pledged to launch a special program to discuss the mission with leading experts and “supporters” starting at 1:40 p.m. PT.
Global warming is causing sea levels to rise and trigger more extreme weather disasters, about 30% of which are caused by methane pollution. The gases come from decomposing garbage in landfills, methane-releasing microorganisms in rice paddies, and the notorious burps and droppings of livestock. It also often escapes from oil and gas fields, pipelines and even household appliances. After all, so-called natural gas is mostly just methane.
Orbiting the Earth in 95 minutes, it will target oil and gas fields that account for about 80% of global production
The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) plans to address all natural gas leaks through methane satellites. The organization has documented numerous methane leaks. Between 2012 and 2018, it found that U.S. methane emissions were actually 60% higher than the Environmental Protection Agency estimated.
The group worked with 40 research institutions and 50 companies to compile a more comprehensive picture of methane emissions. Taking ground measurements directly from the source of the pollution is painstaking work, and they supplement it with aerial readings taken by aircraft.
Methane satellites can cover more ground faster. According to EDF, it would take about 20 seconds to survey the same area that would take an aircraft two hours to survey. It will orbit the Earth in 95 minutes, setting its sights on oil and gas fields that account for more than 80% of global production.
The goal is to quickly understand how much methane is leaking and from where, so steps can be taken to plug any leaks. Methane is 80 times more effective at heating the planet than the carbon dioxide produced by burning fossil fuels, but only for the first 20 years after entering the atmosphere, after which its effectiveness decreases.
Carbon dioxide, on the other hand, lingers in the atmosphere and traps heat for centuries. Because methane is a powerful but relatively short-lived greenhouse gas, preventing its leakage is seen as a quick way to have a significant, direct impact on climate change.
Google last month announced a partnership with EDF to create a global map of methane pollution from oil and gas infrastructure. The company is training AI to identify well pads, pumps and storage tanks in satellite images the same way it identifies sidewalks and street signs on Google Maps. Matching infrastructure to emissions data from methane satellites may be able to help regulators pinpoint where leaks exist.
If the mission succeeds, it could be a game-changer, allowing policymakers to evaluate their progress on climate action based on real-world pollution measures rather than estimates based on companies’ self-reported emissions.
“What we know from a decade of on-site measurements is that, actually, when you measure actual emissions on site, it turns out that the total emissions from the industry are much higher than what they report using engineering. EDF Energy Transition Senior Vice President Mark Brownstein said at a news conference Friday.
According to EDF, the cost to build and launch the satellite was $88 million. The Bezos Earth Fund gave EDF a $100 million grant in 2020 to help get the methane satellite project off the ground, making it one of the project’s largest funders. Methane Satellite also marks the New Zealand Space Agency’s first government-funded space mission.
If all goes according to plan, MethaneSat should begin releasing some data publicly by early summer. EDF said it does not expect to have a complete picture of the world’s major oil and gas basins until 2025, with the data to be made available on the MacetSAT website and Google Earth Engine.