Natural gas leakage on Aliso Canyon occurred earlier this year, and it was one of the most terrible environmental disasters in the history of the United States. But after a few months, this leak again attracted attention, because methane, as it turned out, was seen from space.
This is according to new data published the other day in Geophysical Research Letters, which used the NASA infrared spectrometer to detect methane flowing near Alias Canyon on three separate overpass in December and January.
On the one hand, these data simply more accurately describe the leakage value – about 97 thousand methane methane tons, which is equivalent to the average annual greenhouse gas emissions from more than half a million car. On the other hand, these data show how the role of satellite technologies in the field of environmental impact monitoring of the oil and gas industry has grown.
In the US, the catastrophe led to the fact that the government is going to tighten the rules for the work of industries related to methane. Obama announced the adjustment of methane emissions. But methane emissions, as you know, hard to track. If space technologies will help track the emissions of the oil and gas industry, then it may make these sources of pollution more careful.