Methane is a greenhouse gas 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide. In fact, according to the International Energy Agency, methane is responsible for around 30% of the global temperature rise that has occurred since the pre-industrial period.
But tracking methane emissions can be a challenge, particularly because this gas is colorless and odorless, and leaks from a variety of small sources, such as oil and gas well sites, pipelines, storage tanks, and landfills. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the oil and gas industry emits an estimated 84 million tons of methane per year, mostly through leakage.
To try to understand the extent of the problem, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has been conducting flyovers for the past decade, gathering data on methane plumes using an aircraft or drone-based sensor called the Airborne Visible-Infrared Imaging Spectrometer – Next Generation (AVIRIS-NG). But identifying methane plumes in this data can be difficult. Methane plumes can have similar spectral signatures to other background objects, like the white-painted roofs of commercial buildings. And, not all methods of finding plumes work equally well across different environments. A strategy that picks out plumes from a lush,...
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