MethaneSAT

General Studies Paper -3

Context: MethaneSAT, a new satellite backed by Alphabet Inc’s Google and the Environmental Defense Fund group, was launched recently.

About

• The satellite will track and measure methane emissions at a global scale and was launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon9 rocket from California.
• It is not the first spacecraft to identify and quantify methane emissions, it will provide more details and have a much wider field of view than any of its predecessors.

Methane Emissions and Need to Track it

• Contribution of Methane Gas:Methane is an invisible but strong greenhouse gas, and the second largest contributor to global warming after carbon dioxide, responsible for 30 percent of global heating since the Industrial Revolution.
• According to the United Nations Environment Programme, over a period of 20 years, methane is 80 times more potent at warming than carbon dioxide.
• Formation of Ground level Ozone: 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.
• Exposure to ground-level ozone could be contributing to one million premature deaths every year.
• Major Contributor:The main reason is fossil fuel operations, which account for about 40 percent of all human-caused methane emissions.
• Therefore, it is crucial to cut methane emissions and the objective of MethaneSAT is to help achieve this goal.

About MethaneSAT

• It is developed by the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) — a US-based nonprofit environmental advocacy group with Harvard University, the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, and the New Zealand Space Agency.
• MethaneSATwill orbit the Earth 15 times a day, monitoring the oil and gas sector.
• Specifications:It can track differences in methane concentrations as small as three parts per billion in the atmosphere, which enables it to pick up smaller emissions sources than the previous satellites.
• MethaneSAT also has a wide-camera view of about 200 km by 200 km allowing it to identify larger emitters so-called “super emitters”.
• Tracking and Data Creation:It will create a large amount of data to disclose how much methane is coming from where, who’s responsible, and are those emissions going up or down over time.
• The collected data will be analysed using cloud-computing and AI technology developed by Google — the company is a mission partner — and the data will be made public through Google’s Earth Engine platform.

Significance: This will allow stakeholders and regulators to take action to reduce methane emissions.