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A Third of California Methane Traced to a Few Super-Emitters NASA
scientists are helping California create a detailed, statewide inventory of methane
point sources - highly concentrated methane releases from single sources - using
a specialized airborne sensor. The new data, published this week in the journal
Nature, can be used to target actions to reduce emissions of this potent
greenhouse gas.
Like
carbon dioxide, methane traps heat in the atmosphere, but it does so more
efficiently and for a shorter period of time. Scientists estimate that most
methane emissions in California are driven by industrial facilities, such as
oil and gas fields, large dairies and landfills. To help reduce methane's impact
on climate, the state has made cutting human-caused emissions a priority. But
in order to cut these hard-to-detect emissions, they have to be measured and the
sources identified.
NASA,
through partnerships with the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and the
California Energy Commission, set out to do just that. Over a two-year period,
a research team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California,
flew a plane equipped with the Airborne Visible
InfraRed Imaging Spectrometer - Next Generation (AVIRIS-NG)
instrument over nearly 300,000 facilities and infrastructure components in
those sectors. The instrument can detect plumes of methane in great detail.
Each pixel covers an area of about 10 feet (3 meters) across, which allows
scientists to see even small plumes that often go undetected.
The team identified
more than 550 individual point sources emitting plumes of highly concentrated
methane. Ten percent of these sources, considered super-emitters, contributed
the majority of the emissions detected. The team estimates that statewide,
super-emitters are responsible for about a third of California's total methane
budget.
Emissions
data like this can help facility operators identify and correct problems - and
in turn, bring California closer to its emissions goals. For example, of the
270 surveyed landfills, only 30 were observed to emit large plumes of methane.
However, those 30 were responsible for 40% of the total point-source emissions
detected during the survey. This type of data could help these facilities to identify
possible leaks or malfunctions in their gas-capture systems.
"These
findings illustrate the importance of monitoring point sources across multiple
sectors [of the economy] and broad regions, both for improved understanding of
methane budgets and to support emission mitigation efforts," said the lead
scientist on the study, Riley Duren, who conducted the work for NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory.
Initial results
have been shared with facility operators in California to make them aware of
the need to improve their methane-leak detection processes and to institute
better controls on methane emissions. Results will also be used to help state
and local agencies and businesses prioritize investments in methane-emission
mitigation.
Although the survey provides a detailed
map of methane emissions for the areas observed in the state, researchers
caution that this was the first attempt to estimate emissions for individual
methane sources from a large population distributed across such an extensive area
over multiple years.
Additionally,
this survey was designed to detect highly concentrated releases of methane from
a single component or piece of industrial equipment, such as an oil well. The
survey excluded non-point sources, such as small natural gas leaks from millions
of homes, because even though they may have a collective impact on atmospheric
methane levels, their individual emissions are below the detection levels of this
method.
The survey builds on a decade of
cooperation between NASA, CARB and the California Energy Commission to support the
state's ambitious climate change mitigation program, specifically on the study
of air pollution impacts from the oil and gas sector.
"This new remote-sensing technology addresses the continuing need for detailed, high-quality data about
methane," said California Air Resources Board Chair Mary D.
Nichols. "It will help us and the Energy Commission develop the best strategies for capturing this highly potent
greenhouse gas."
The final
report of the California Methane Survey will be available in the fall.
The map
and data from this survey can be viewed here:
http://methane.jpl.nasa.gov/
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