Satellite Tech: Tracking & Reducing Methane Emissions

Tracking The Right Global Warming Metric

When it comes to climate change induced by greenhouse gases, most of the public’s attention is on CO₂, as this is by far the most durable emission, staying stable in the atmosphere and increasing global temperature.

But another key factor is methane, a very powerful greenhouse gas, mostly released from leaks in coal, gas, and oil fields. Correctly assessing and reducing methane emissions is going to be crucial to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

However, this is easier said than done, with emissions coming from oil & gas fields in remote areas or diffuse leaks from large-scale coal mines, or even agricultural operations and melting permafrost.

This is why a growing network of space-based sensors is being built to measure methane emissions. These constellations of satellites can detect methane directly from space, over a massive surface area at once, and precisely assess the situation.

As this tool gets ever more precise and produces real-time coverage of the Earth, high-quality data on both the timing and quantity of methane emissions is becoming available.

Methane Emission 101

Why Tracking Methane Emissions?

CO₂ is the main factor in greenhouse gas emissions, as this is by far the most abundant one, and also the one most produced by human activities.

However, methane, another greenhouse gas massively produced by human civilization, is much more powerful in its ability to trap heat (greenhouse effect). It is 28–34x more powerful than CO₂ at trapping heat over a 100-year period. On a shorter 20-year timescale, it is over 80 times more potent.

So while CO₂ might be the number that matters for long-term increase in temperatures, methane is very impactful for the immediate warming effect.

The extra issue is that feedback loops can accelerate warming. For example, warming melts icy ground in northern regions like Canada and Siberia, leading to more methane being released, and the darker ground absorbing more heat.

So short-term high levels of methane emissions can create accelerating short-term warming, which will then have a long-term effect on global temperature through acceleration of feedback loops, creating durable and potentially irreversible changes in global temperature.

So, even if, luckily, the atmospheric lifespan is on average only 12 years (then decaying into CO₂), it is far from just a transient effect that methane molecules can have on the climate.

As methane emissions are rising even more quickly than CO₂ emissions in the past few years, urgent action is required, itself requiring a clear picture of where the methane is coming from.

Source: IEA

How Is Methane Measured?

For local measurement, methane concentration can be measured with various sensors using different detection methods like flame ionization, lasers, catalytic beads, etc.

But for larger-scale measurement, infrared sensors are generally preferred, as they can detect methane plumes by detecting methane’s ability to absorb specific wavelengths in the infrared spectrum, in the Short-Wave Infrared (SWIR) range.

For even larger detection scales, satellites need to deploy even more precise measurements. So while the general principle is often to detect change in absorption in the SWIR range, additional technology is now being deployed.

One method is multispectral sensors that have a few wide bands of detection. While not specific to methane detection, sensors like those on Sentinel-2 and Landsat-8 can detect the large “super-emitter” plumes by comparing reflectance across their SWIR bands. This is good enough for a rough estimate and detecting the larger emissions, but this is inadequate for precise measurement and smaller emissions sources, therefore, missing a significant portion of the whole picture.

Another method is using imaging interferometers, which merge light sources to create interference patterns. This enables high-resolution detection of methane from small satellites, and is the method notably used by the GHGSat satellite constellation (see below).

Lastly, hyperspectral sensors can be used, which capture data across hundreds or thousands of narrow, contiguous spectral bands. This way, it covers the whole visible, near-infrared, and short-wave infrared ranges, creating unique spectral “fingerprints” for each pixel, allowing for detailed identification of materials making up the atmosphere at various altitudes, including methane. This is by far the most advanced method, and is deployed in PRISMA (Italy) and EnMAP (Germany).

With these new methods, satellite detection of methane emissions is getting ever more precise, and allowing for more efficient policies.

Main Methane Tracking Initiatives

A large array of satellite-based methane detection is being built or launched, creating a dense mesh of methane emission detectors, each with its own technical specification and useful niche usage.

Some are commercial initiatives, others are parts of public research programs regarding climate change, and others are linked to mixed private-public partnerships.

Source: MethaneSAT

GHGSat

GHGSat currently manages the largest commercial constellation for methane and CO₂ detection, with 16 satellites in orbit by 2026.

The company’s technology is able to detect methane emission at a resolution as small as 25 meters (82 feet), letting it point out individual gas & oil wells.

The company developed the first sensor for small satellites that can detect methane (CH₄) emissions. These patented imaging interferometers fit into very small (and therefore cheaper) satellites measuring just 20 x 30 x 40 cm (7.8 x 11.8 x 15.7 inches).

Source: GHGSat

This was a remarkable technical achievement by GHGSat, as they developed that capability with less than 1% of the investment of other satellite companies. And this created an observation capacity 100x more precise than many other satellites, able to detect methane reliably.

In total, the company had 534 MTCO₂e/yr of methane emissions detected with its satellites.

Source: GHGSat

The company is not only monitoring methane, but also CO₂ with GHGSat-C10 ‘Vanguard’, the world’s first commercial high-resolution CO₂ sensor. It is enabling precise measurements from carbon-intensive sites down to 25m on the ground.

“Our high-resolution satellites helped put methane – a greenhouse gas that was out of sight and out of mind – at the top of the climate agenda. For the first time, operators of steel mills, power plants, and petrochemical complexes will have access to independent, accurate, and globally standardized emissions monitoring and data. ”

Stephane Germain, CEO at GHGSat

Lastly, the company also performs airborne measurements, with a linear survey able to perform as much as up to 800km/day at up to 3,000m altitude (500 miles – 10,000 feet altitude). This measurement can detect and measure methane emissions from individual sources down to 10kg/hr, refining further the detection performed by satellites.

Overall, cheap and small sensors that are also precise enough are probably the way to go for proper monitoring of methane emissions, as regular flybys and consistent coverage are required to properly measure real emissions. In addition, doing it from space or airborne reduces costs and increases safety, as no access to the analyzed sites is required.

MethaneSAT

Launched in 2024, this satellite is designed to bridge the gap between regional mapping and precision imaging, so it can track both large emitters and smaller dispersed sources.

MethaneSAT’s data shows emissions across a wide region represented on a gridded heat map. These are known as dispersed area emissions or dispersed sources. Grid cells have sizes such as 4 km x 4 km or 5 km x 5 km.

It can point out the source emitting methane at 500 kg/hr. This is enough to account for more than 80% of methane emissions associated with global oil and gas production.

Where MethaneSAT is weaker in resolution, it beats in precision, with detection of excess methane at 3 ppb (parts per billion), the highest precision compared to other satellites in orbit, thanks to two passive infrared Littrow spectrometers detecting oxygen, CO₂, and methane. This demonstrated the importance of measuring small methane emissions, and not just the so-called “super-emitters”.

“70% of the roughly 15 million metric tons of methane coming from onshore oil and gas activities in the continental U.S. each year comes from smaller, dispersed sources of less than 100 kilograms of methane per hour. Nearly a third (30%) are from sites releasing less than 10 kilograms per hour.”

By the end of 2025, the MethaneSAT team had acquired data over 41 oil and gas basins around the world, covering 25 countries and 50% of global onshore oil and gas production. Nearly 800 researchers, analysts, and technical users across industry, government, academia, and NGOs were granted access to our Level 3 and Level 4 data on Google platforms.

You can see a preview of this capacity on the associated page of the Google Earth Search Engine Apps.

Carbon Mapper

Carbon Mapper is the result of a unique public-private partnership started in 2019 to develop and deploy two satellites with capabilities to detect and quantify methane and CO₂ super-emitters.

The project is funded by a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization, Carbon Mapper, which relies on the generosity of philanthropic funders.

On the technical side, organizations like NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Planet Labs PBC, California Air Resources Board (CARB), University of Arizona, Arizona State University, Stanford University, Harvard University, University of Michigan, and RMI contributed their expertise.

On the financial and philanthropic side can be found High Tide Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, and the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment.

“With the launch of our first satellite, Carbon Mapper, and our partners are working to scale up the availability of public data to accelerate emissions reductions globally.”

Carbon Mapper CEO Riley Duren

The satellites are equipped to detect methane plumes, for example, from pipelines or flares, with emission rates as low as 70 kg/hr under moderate conditions (predicted 90% detection limit of about 100 kg/hr).

The instrument on Planet’s Tanager-1 satellite represents 5th-generation imaging spectrometer technology, designed by NASA JPL.

Source: Carbon Mapper

Before the first satellite launch in 2024, Carbon Mapper was using imaging spectrometers onboard airplanes to detect methane super-emitters, including AVIRIS-NG by NASA, JPL, and the Global Airborne Observatory by ASU’s Center for Global Discovery and Conservation Science.

AIRMO

AIRMO is a German-led initiative developing a constellation of satellites that will use a unique combination of LiDAR and SWIR (Short-Wave Infrared) sensors to track methane even through clouds or at night.

The SWIR pushbroom spectrometer will be capable of detecting methane columns with a ground sampling resolution of ~50m across-track at 500km altitude. The micro-LiDAR system will enhance detection accuracy and sensitivity beyond what spectrometers alone can achieve.

The system will combine the satellite data with airborne TDLAS sensors and use novel AI-driven data analytics.

AIRMO announced in February 2026 a strategic partnership with EnduroSat. EnduroSat will provide its patented cableless, modular design FRAME-15 software-flexible satellite, ESPA-class platform, with 70 kg of payload and 3.4 kW of power, a design already used in 120 operating satellites.

“We needed a partner who could match our pace and our ambition. EnduroSat brings exactly the technical depth and mission execution experience we need to get our payload to orbit on schedule and performing to spec.”

Daria Stepanova – CEO & Co-founder, AIRMO

The first satellite is scheduled for launch in early 2027 and will serve as the foundation for a 12+ satellite constellation designed to deliver global methane intelligence at scale with unmatched temporal resolution.

Initial focus markets include European gas infrastructure, Central Asia, and the Middle East — regions with some of the world’s highest and least-monitored methane emissions.

GESat / Copernicus (Europe)

The European Space Agency (ESA) is working on this project that saw the launch of the first satellite part of Absolut Sensing‘s constellation in 2025 in a SpaceX rocket. The satellites are built around the standard CubeSat 12u platforms.

GESat GEN1 carries a combination of hyperspectral instruments to precisely identify methane emissions with high accuracy. This includes a wide range of infrared wavelengths detection, cooled by the CRYASSY system to improve instrument sensitivity and spectral resolution.

Source: Absolut Sensing

The mission will detect and quantify hotspot methane emissions with a threshold of 100 Kg/hour. An extra constellation of 3 satellites (CO₂M-A, -B, and -C) should be fully operational by the end of 2026 and add further data. The Copernicus initiative also leverages data from other constellations, notably GHGSat.

The data will be analyzed by a physics-guided machine learning model (AI) trained on petabytes of atmospheric and weather data. This will help improve measurement in all weather conditions, including when winds and other weather-related effects can deform the original emission data.

Source: Copernicus

PRISMA

PRISMA, or PRecursore IperSpettrale della Missione Applicativa, is an Italian Hyperspectral satellite launched by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) in March 2019.

It uses a prism spectrometer to split reflected light into 239 narrow, continuous spectral bands and covers the spectrum from 400 nm to 2500 nm, including visible (VNIR) and short-wave infrared (SWIR) light.

It ultimately combines a hyperspectral sensor with a 30m resolution (100 feet) with a panchromatic camera with a 5m resolution (16 feet) for sharp, detailed images, and a large 30 km swath width (18.6 miles).

This earlier generation of satellite is able to detect methane, but has also plenty of other applications in forestry, agriculture, urbanism, mineral exploitation, other environmental monitoring, and disaster management.

EnMap

EnMAP (Environmental Mapping and Analysis Program) is a German hyperspectral satellite mission launched in 2022.

It utilizes imaging spectroscopy to break down sunlight reflected from Earth into 246 narrow, contiguous spectral bands, from 420 nm to 2450 nm, spanning the visible, near-infrared (VNIR), and short-wave infrared (SWIR) regions.

Each pixel in an EnMAP image represents a 30 m x 30 m area on the ground. Like PRISMA, this is a multipurpose satellite, but it contributed important findings in methane emissions before the launch of more specialized satellites and constellations.

NarSha (South Korea)

NarSha is South Korea’s first dedicated methane-monitoring microsatellite constellation, made of more than 100 satellites, developed by the South Korean company Nara Space for launch in 2026, in collaboration with Seoul National University (SNU) and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI).

The satellites are built using a compact 16U CubeSat standard, and an initial batch of 12 satellites will start to be launched in 2026.

The sheer number of these satellites could provide near-real-time global methane monitoring, with daily revisits to specific emission sources. It should display high resolution, with spatial resolution expected at less than 25–30 meters and high-precision methane-focused measurements, thanks to a spectral resolution finer than 1 nm (within the 1625–1670 nm methane band).

Fixing Methane Emissions

Where Do Methane Emissions Come From?

Thanks to more accurate measurements from all the satellites tracking methane, we now have a much more precise image of methane emissions than in 2020. Overall, oil & gas emissions are the largest from Eurasia (especially Russia and Central Asia), the Middle East, and North America, as well as surprisingly high levels from Africa.

Source: IEA

How Can Methane Emissions Be Reduced?

Leaks, uncared-for fossil fuel-producing sites, and flaring are all major sources of methane that could be resolved at almost no net cost.

Among the many solutions that can be implemented with available technologies and resources, a few can be mentioned:

• Providing clean energy access to fossil fuel-producing sites.
• Reducing flaring.
• Leak detection and repairs.
• Vapour recovery units.

Other measures like plugging leaky wells or coal mine degasification could be impactful as well, but are less crucial in absolute volume.

Source: IEA

However, the total spending is relatively small compared to the world economy, or for example, oil companies’ income or military spending, with the IEA estimate of $250B enough to cut most methane emissions.

“We estimate that around USD 260 billion in spending is needed through to 2030 to implement all of the methane abatement measures required to reach a 75% reduction in methane emissions. The average annual spending required represents less than 2% of the net income the fossil fuel industry generates annually.”

While a lot of these investments will actually pay for themselves in saved emissions and recuperate useful natural gas that can be sold or utilized, some initiatives will need direct financing when they have a negative net cost. But this, too, could be relatively easily financed by international institutions, considering the money sums required.

“We estimate the financing gap for fossil fuel methane abatement in low‑ and middle-income countries to be around USD 60 billion (roughly USD 40 billion for active operations and USD 20 billion for abandoned facilities).”

Investing In Methane Monitoring

Google

Google is, of course, better known as an ultra-dominant search engine, a major tool for Internet ads, a cloud service provider, and a leader in AI technology. But it is also, via its Earth Engine, the primary partner for processing methane emissions data for global regulatory use.

Earth Engine combines satellite imagery with Google’s and its partners’ algorithms to deploy this information into usable, actionable, real-world applications.

This includes ready-to-use datasets covering everything from climate, weather, geography, and agriculture, or direct access with the Earth Engine API, available in Python and JavaScript.

“Google Earth Engine has made it possible for the first time in history to rapidly and accurately process vast amounts of satellite imagery, identifying where and when tree cover change has occurred at high resolution. Global Forest Watch would not exist without it. For those who care about the future of the planet Google Earth Engine is a great blessing!”

Dr. Andrew Steer, President and CEO of the World Resources Institute.

The data can be used for non-commercial purposes, in which case use is free under a strict set of conditions.

Source: Earth Engine

It can also be used for commercial purposes, giving the client company direct access to 50+ petabytes of analysis-ready data and unparalleled analytical processing power. This can be used to demonstrate the impact of ESG initiatives, identify environmental risks, optimize agricultural yields, compare potential sites for industrial facilities like photovoltaic plants, etc.

“Unilever is committed to achieving a deforestation-free supply chain by 2023. Using a geospatial platform that leverages Google Earth Engine and Google Cloud enables us to realize our ambition of creating a truly sustainable supply chain.”

Andrew Wilcox, Senior Manager, Sustainable Sourcing & Digital Programs, Unilever

Many companies have been built on the back of Google Earth Engine, for example:

• Earth Blox: Offers a no-code interface to Earth Engine, making it accessible to non-technical users in the commercial sector
• NGIS: Focuses on delivering insights for the agriculture industry.
• Spatial Informatics Group (SIG): Focuses on environmental decision support, with expertise in vegetation identification, phenology analysis, and crop monitoring.
• Climate Engine: A strategic partner that provides core applications integrated with Google Cloud, helping businesses manage water resources and wildfire risk

This is one among many examples of the power of data for a company like Google. It can not only have a lot of positive impact for NGOs and other non-commercial activities, but it can also provide an irreplaceable (and highly valuable and monetizable) feed of data to countless corporations, either directly or indirectly through vendors and curators refining the data into actionable insight for specific industries or use cases.

As we enter the dawn of the AI age, this type of treasure trove of data will grow in value more and more, especially for companies like Google, able to leverage it to the maximum with its own internal AI expertise, of which LLMs like Gemini are just the tip of the iceberg.

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