Strength in numbers: how the different satellite systems used to monitor methane emissions from space have different, yet complementary, capabilities to help the oil and gas industry meet its decarbonisation goals

Abstract

Satellites are a powerful tool in monitoring methane emissions around the world. In the last 5 years, many new systems have been both announced and deployed, each with different capabilities, and designed for a specific purpose. With an increase in options also comes confusion as to how these systems can and should be used. This paper will examine how these systems complement each other’s strengths and weaknesses to provide actionable insight to the oil and gas industry. The performance parameters of several current and future satellite systems will be presented and compared, supported with recent examples when available. The importance of factors like frequency of revisit, detection threshold, precision, and spatial resolution will be discussed and contrasted with the needs of the oil and gas industry in gaining a more complete understanding of its methane emissions, in providing key information to stakeholders, and in enabling action to mitigate emissions. Results from GHGSat’s second generation of high-resolution satellites displaying measurements of methane plumes at oil and gas facilities around the world will be presented to demonstrate some of the advantages of the technology. These two satellites, GHGSat-C1 and C2 (Iris and Hugo), were launched in September 2020 and January 2021, respectively. Another eight satellites are planned to be launched by mid-2023. Finally, the ability of these systems to work together and complement each other’s capabilities, and some of the analytics tools used to augment the data, will be presented.