Typically, the detection of methane emissions relies on Copernicus Sentinel-5P. Until fairly recently, scientists have only begun harnessing the power of combining data from multiple satellites to monitor methane emissions from space which included theThese high-tech space-based tools work in tandem to monitor and assess methane emissions on a global scale, allowing researchers to not only detect the presence of methane but also to localise and quantify emissions accurately.
Near the Hassi Messaoud oil/gas field in Algeria, researchers identified a continuous methane emission from a leaking facility for six days. The methane plume, detected by Sentinel-5P over Algeria on January 4, 2020, extended for more than 200 km northeast. When analyzing these leaks, both Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-3 provided similar estimates of methane emissions – showcasing Sentinel-3’s utility in quantifying emissions. Combining the data from these two satellites allows researchers to zoom in with precision, identifying, quantifying, and monitoring methane sources corresponding to plumes observed in Sentinel-5P’s global scans.