Methane produced by the waste sector contributes an estimated 20% of human-caused methane emissions. Ton for load, methane is more than 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide in trapping heat in the environment.
” Currently, there is restricted actionable details about methane emissions from the international waste sector. A detailed understanding of high-emission point sources from waste websites is a critical action to alleviating them,” said Carbon Mapper CEO Riley Duren. “New technological abilities that are making these emissions noticeable– and therefore actionable– have the potential to alter the game, raising our cumulative understanding of near-term opportunities in this often overlooked sector.”
Carbon Mapper got a grant from the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment to support its operations related to the waste-site effort, including prospective financing to cover air-borne methane studies using NASA air-borne assets. To gather information from these regions, researchers will utilize aircraft-based sensors, consisting of the Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer-Next Generation (AVIRIS-NG), which was developed at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
As part of the Carbon Mapper task, researchers will evaluate methane data from EMIT. The JPL-managed imaging spectrometer was set up on the International Space Station in July 2022 to measure the mineral material at the surface of Earths major dust-producing regions.
In October, researchers showed that EMIT can likewise identify methane plumes from “super-emitters.” In so doing, the group added another tool to help with NASAs more comprehensive efforts to monitor greenhouse gases.
” NASA JPL has a decadelong performance history of utilizing air-borne imaging spectrometers to make high-quality observations of methane point-source emissions,” stated Robert Green, EMITs primary investigator at JPL. “With EMIT we have actually employed the exact same innovation in a spaceborne instrument, allowing us to collect info on localized methane sources from orbit.”
After the first year of the Carbon Mapper project, researchers will perform a broader study of more than 10,000 landfills all over the world utilizing two satellites in the Carbon Mapper satellite program. The set of spacecraft will be equipped with imaging spectrometer technology developed at JPL. The group is targeting a launch in late 2023 in coordination with Planet Labs PBC, to name a few partners.
Information from the job will be accessible at the Carbon Mapper Data Portal.
More About the Missions
EMIT was chosen from the Earth Venture Instrument-4 solicitation under the Earth Science Division of NASAs Science Mission Directorate and was established at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is handled for the agency by Caltech in Pasadena, California. The instruments data will be provided to the NASA Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC) for usage by other scientists and the public.
The Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer-Next Generation (AVIRIS-NG) was developed at JPL and developed to measure wavelengths of light from 380 to 2,510 nanometers. It has actually flown numerous missions, studying phenomena such as plant ecology, mineralogy, snow and ice hydrology, and environmental hazards.
Carbon Mapper is a not-for-profit organization focused on helping with timely action to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. Its objective is to fill spaces in the emerging international environment of methane and co2 tracking systems by delivering data at center scale that is exact, timely, and available to empower science-based decision making and action. The company is leading the advancement of the Carbon Mapper constellation of satellites supported by a public-private partnership composed of Planet Labs PBC, JPL, the California Air Resources Board, the University of Arizona, Arizona State University, and RMI, with financing from High Tide Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, and other philanthropic donors.
Methane produced by the waste sector contributes an approximated 20% of human-caused methane emissions. Load for ton, methane is more than 80 times more powerful than carbon dioxide in trapping heat in the atmosphere. Where carbon dioxide remains in the air for centuries, methane has a climatic lifetime of only about a decade or two. Carbon Mapper received a grant from the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment to support its operations related to the waste-site effort, consisting of prospective financing to cover air-borne methane surveys using NASA air-borne properties. Its mission is to fill gaps in the emerging international ecosystem of methane and carbon dioxide monitoring systems by providing data at center scale that is precise, timely, and accessible to empower science-based choice making and action.
Methane from the waste sector makes up about 20% of human-caused methane emissions. A new task from a not-for-profit group, Carbon Mapper, will utilize NASA information and instruments to measure emissions from garbage dumps around the world.
A not-for-profit group, Carbon Mapper, will utilize information from NASAs EMIT mission, plus existing airborne and future satellite instruments, to survey waste sites for methane emissions.
Observations from the Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT) and other NASA science instruments will be part of a global survey of point-source emissions of methane from solid waste sites such as garbage dumps. The multiyear effort is being developed and carried out by the not-for-profit Carbon Mapper organization.
Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, the source of approximately a quarter to a third of worldwide warming triggered by people. The objective of the new effort is to develop a standard assessment of global waste sites that discharge methane at high rates. This details can support decision-makers as they work to minimize the concentration of the gas in the environment and limitation climate modification.