Why is methane detection difficult but important work

In Washington and around Washington, volunteers and activists go through the streets and homes to find out how healthy the air is.

They are armed with industry monitors that detect multiple gases. The devices are similar to the radio.

But they are equipped with sensors that reveal the degree of methane, turning this invisible gas into specific numbers on the screen.

These figures can worry. In the 25-hour period, a neighborhood researchers found 13 open methane leaks At concentrations that exceed the lower explosive border. They also found methane leaks in homes.

The key problem was health. Methane and other gases, particularly nitric oxide from gas stoves associated with Higher asthma risks.

Jamila Bach, a health worker, as well as the leader of the tenant of the NGO in Montgomery, reports that one of the three children has asthma in homes tested by the organization.

“It is very soulful and disturbing when you test and you will find out that some people live in such a state that they cannot change yet,” says Ms. Bach.

Methane can be a danger to human health, but it is also a powerful greenhouse gas.

Although in the atmosphere it has a much shorter service life than carbon dioxide (CO2), methane is much better when trapped, and this is explained about one quarter Growing global temperature after industrialization.

Methane emissions come from a variety of sectors. The main one is fossil fuels, waste and agriculture.

But methane is not always easy to see.

It can be detected with pocket gas sensors such as community researchers. It can also be visualized using infrared cameras as methane absorbs infrared light.

Monitoring can be terrestrial, including devices installed on the vehicle or air, including drone base measurement. A combination of technology Particularly useful.

“There is no ideal solution,” says Andrea Kalskan, an employee of the program of the International Methane Observatory, the UN initiative.

There are compromises between the cost of technology and the scale of analysis that can extend to thousands of objects.

Fortunately, over the last decade, she has noticed the extension of available methane sensors. So there is no reason to expect methane monitoring on any scale. And the world must solve both small leaks and events that are highly emitted, she says.

A larger scale satellites are often good Identify super-emitators: Less often, but massively emit events, such as huge leaks of oil and gas. Or they can detect smaller and more common emitters, which are much more common, such as cattle.

Modern satellites are usually designed to control one emitter, says Riley Düren, CEO of Carbon Mapper, a non -profit organization that tracks emissions.

He compares it with cameras. The telephone object offers a higher resolution, and the wide-angle lens allows for a broader field of view.

With the help of a new satellite, carbon cartography focuses high resolution, high sensitivity and rapid detection, to more accurately detect the emissions. In August 2024, the Carbon Mapper launched the Tanager-1 satellite, together with the NASA jet laboratory and the Planet Labs Company.

Satellites have struggled with methane emissions in certain conditions, for example, poorly maintained oil wells in snow areas with a lot of vegetation. Low lighting, high latitude, mountains and offshore areas also present problems.

Mr. Dureen says that Tanager-1 with high resolution can respond to some of these problems, for example, essentially by breaking through gaps in cloud cover or forest cover.

“In the oil and gas field, a high resolution can be a difference between the insulation of methane emissions from the head of the oil well from a nearby pipeline,” he says. This can help determine exactly who is responsible.

In November in November, the emissions began to throw out on the viewing of Tanager-1.

It will take several years to create a complete set of satellites, which will depend on financing.

Tanager-1 is not the only new satellite with a focus on the delivery of methane data. MeThanesat, the Environmental Protection Fund and the private and public partners, was also launched in 2024.

With the increasing complexity of all these satellite technologies, “which used to be ambiguous is now visible,” says Mr. Düren. “How society we still learn about our true methane trail.”

It is clear that methane emissions need better information. There are some energy companies sought to avoid methane detection Using “closed combustion” to darkening of gas dispersal.

Translation of knowledge is not always easy. Methane level continues to riseEven as available information.

For example, the methane alert and response system (Mars) uses satellite data to detect methane emissions that report companies and governments. The Mars team has collected a large number of methane’s images proven to teach a machine learning model to recognize such plums.

In all places that Mars constantly monitors, based on the history of emissions, the model checks methane a plume every day. The analysts then study any alerts.

Because there are so many places that need to be controlled, “it saves us a lot of time,” says IROCULIS LITXCAT, leading remote sensing for the international methane -in charge of Mars.

Over the two years since its launch, Mars has sent over 1,200 alerts about large methane leaks. Only 1% of those led to the answers.

However, Mrs. Irakulis remains optimistic. Some of these announcements have led to direct action, such as repairs, including cases where the emissions stopped, even if the oil and gas operator did not officially give feedback.

And communications are constantly improving, says Mrs. Irakulis. “I hope it is 1%, we will see that it rose a lot next year.”

At the community level, it was powerful for residents, for example, in the Washington area to accept the air pollution testimony and use them to counteract misinformation. “Now that we know better, we can do better,” says Joel Novi with interfaith and light.