MethaneSAT is a satellite which will track and measure methane emissions at a global scale. It was launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon9 rocket from California (USA) on March 4.
Key points
- It has been launched by Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) — a US-based nonprofit environmental advocacy group.
- To develop the satellite, EDF partnered with Harvard University, the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, and the New Zealand Space Agency.
- MethaneSat aims to help by providing an independent source of methane monitoring, with a primary focus on methane leaked from oil and gas fields. MethaneSAT will orbit the Earth 15 times a day, monitoring the oil and gas sector.
- It will create a large amount of data, which will tell how much methane is coming from where, who’s responsible, and are those emissions going up or down over time.
About Methane
- Methane is a particularly dirty greenhouse gas, driving about 30% of the heating the planet has experienced so far.
- It breaks down in the atmosphere in just 12 years, which is much sooner than the centuries taken by CO2 – but it is also around 80 times more powerful over a 20-year time span.
- The gas also contributes to the formation of ground-level ozone — a colourless and highly irritating gas that forms just above the Earth’s surface.
- According to a 2022 report, exposure to ground-level ozone could be contributing to one million premature deaths every year.
- Fossil fuel operations account for about 40 per cent of all human-caused methane emissions.
