Scientists are using a powerful eye in the sky to spy on methane, which is 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
The Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation instrument is also known as EMIT. Since being installed on the exterior of the International Space Station, EMIT has been mapping the chemical composition of dust throughout Earth's desert regions.
The main goal of EMIT is to make a difference. It is making another less expected contribution to climate studies. More than 50 of them have already been identified by the instrument.
Climate change causes and affects.
Limits on global warming can be achieved by reining in methane emissions. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement that the new development will help researchers better identify where methane leaks are coming from and give insight on how they can be addressed quickly.
Nelson said that the International Space Station and NASA's more than two dozen satellites and instruments in space have been useful in determining changes to the Earth's climate. "EMIT is proving to be a critical tool in our arsenal to stop this potent greenhouse gas from coming from the source."
The EMIT is an instrument that can identify the chemical fingerprints of minerals. It's a happy accident that methane can be spotted.
The principal investigator of the EMIT, Robert Green, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, said during a press conference that methane has a wavelength signature that is similar to that of light.
Some examples of the instrument's sensitivity were given by Green and other EMIT team members. The instrument was able to detect a large amount of methane in the sky above a landfill in Iran. About 18,700 pounds of methane is being pumped into the air every hour by this newfound super-emitter.
It pales in comparison to a group of 12 super-emitters EMIT spotted in Turkmenistan, all of them associated with oil and gas infrastructure. About 111,000 pounds of methane is being added to Earth's atmosphere every hour because of some of those large plumes.
The Aliso Canyon leak was the largest methane release in U.S. history. The Aliso Canyon event was first noticed in October 2015 and wasn't fully plugged until February 2016
EMIT spotted all of the super-emitters very early. As it gets fully up and running, and as scientists get more familiar with the instrument's capabilities, it should make even more contributions.
Andrew Thorpe, a research technologist at JPL, said during Tuesday's press conference that they are only scratching the surface of EMIT's potential. EMIT has the potential to reduce emissions from human activity by identifying the emission sources.
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