Carbon Mapper Coalition's Tanager-1 Satellite with NASA-JPL Spectrometer Releases First Detection Plume Images of Methane and CO2 Plumes

 

     The first three images from Carbon Mapper Coalition’s Tanager-1 satellite have been released. The satellite was launched on August 16, 2024. It carries a NASA-Jet Propulsion Lab-designed spectrometer. Tanager-1 was built by Planet Labs PBC. Both Planet Labs PBC and JPL are members of the Carbon Mapper Coalition.

     The first image is a 2.5-mile (4 km) long methane plume over a landfill in Karachi, Pakistan, generated on September 19, 2024. The source emissions rate is more than 2,600 lbs. (1,200 kg) of methane released per hour.

 

     The second image is a nearly 2-mile (3 km) long CO2 plume from a coal-fired power plant in Kendal, South Africa, also generated on September 19. The source emissions rate is estimated at roughly 1.3 million lbs. (600,000 kg) of CO2 per hour.

 

     The third image is from south of the city of Midland, Texas in the Permian Basin oil & gas field. It was generated on September 24, 2024. The preliminary estimate of the source emissions rate is nearly 900 lbs. (400 kg) of methane per hour.

     If we compare the estimated source emissions rates of the three images, we can see that in terms of weight, the coal emissions are 500 times higher than the landfill emissions and 1500 times higher than the emissions of the Texas oilfield emissions. If we adjust that for the higher global warming potential of methane (I simply used 20 times rate) relative to CO2, then the coal emissions are 25 times higher than the landfill emissions and 75 times higher than the oilfield emissions. Perhaps that gives some perspective to the relative emissions of each source.

     As an exercise, if one were to replace the coal plant with a combined cycle natural gas plant with the most efficient gas turbine technology, that would decrease the emissions by 60%, or down to 240,000 kg/hour. That would bring the adjusted emissions of the gas plant down to 10 times higher than the landfill and 13.35 times higher than the oilfield.

 

     The Phys.org article notes:

 

“…the imaging spectrometer aboard Tanager-1 can measure hundreds of wavelengths of light reflected from Earth's surface. Each chemical compound on the ground and in the atmosphere reflects and absorbs different combinations of wavelengths, which give it a "spectral fingerprint" that researchers can identify. Using this approach, Tanager-1 will help researchers detect and measure emissions down to the facility level.”

 

“Once in full operation, the spacecraft will scan about 116,000 square miles (300,000 square kilometers) of Earth's surface per day. Methane and carbon dioxide measurements collected by Tanager-1 will be publicly available on the Carbon Mapper data portal.”

 

     Looking at the Carbon Mapper Portal I noticed that many of the images presumably from other satellites are fairly similar to the images from the new satellite. I also noticed that the website showed emissions data for some local landfills but not others in my region. Thus, I don’t think the coverage is comprehensive. I am not sure how satellite data is focused on different regions and how many images they can handle so it may just be an issue of the vastness of the database and perhaps how often images are taken for each facility.

 

 

References:

First greenhouse gas plumes detected with NASA-designed instrument. NASA. October 10, 2024. First greenhouse gas plumes detected with NASA-designed instrument (msn.com)

Carbon Mapper Data Portal. Dashboard | Carbon Mapper