Now they’re coming to take your trash – NASA to track methane emissions from landfill from space – Watts Up With That?

From NASA JPL and “looks like there will be a garbage limit in your future” Department.

NASA sensors help detect methane released by landfills

A non-profit group, Carbon Mapper, will use data from NASA’s EMIT mission, plus current and future airborne satellite instruments, to survey landfills for methane emissions- melt.

Observations from the investigation of mineral dust sources on the earth’s surface (EMIT) and other NASA science instruments will be part of a global survey of point-source methane emissions from solid waste dumps such as landfills. The multi-year effort is being developed and implemented by the nonprofit organization Carbon Mapper organization.

Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that is the source of about one-quarter to one-third of anthropogenic global warming. The aim of the new initiative is to establish a baseline assessment of the global waste regions that emit methane at high rates. This information can assist decision makers as they work to reduce atmospheric concentrations and limit climate change.

The methane generated by the waste sector is estimated to contribute about 20% of anthropogenic methane emissions. In tons, methane is 80 times more powerful than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere. But where carbon dioxide stays in the air for centuries, methane only has a lifetime in the atmosphere about a decade or two. That means an immediate reduction in the rate of atmospheric warming could be achieved if methane emissions are reduced significantly.

“At present, there is little useful information available on methane emissions from the global waste sector. A comprehensive understanding of the sources of high emission points from landfills is an important step towards reducing them,” said Carbon Mapper CEO Riley Duren. “New technological capabilities are making these emissions visible – and therefore actionable – potentially game-changing, enhancing our collective understanding of short-term opportunities. term in this often overlooked area.”

Carbon Mapper has received a grant from the Grantham Foundation for Environmental Defense to support the organization’s activities related to the landfill initiative, including potential funding to pay for airborne methane survey using NASA’s aerial assets. The project will require an initial remote sensing survey by 2023 of more than 1,000 managed landfills across the US and Canada, as well as at key sites in Latin America, Africa and Asia. To collect data from these areas, the researchers will use onboard sensors, including the Next Generation Aerial-Infrared/Visible Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS-Language), developed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. Additionally, they will use the Arizona State University Global Aerial Observatory from the Center for Conservation and Global Discovery Science, which uses another imaging spectrometer built by JPL.

As part of the Carbon Mapper project, the researchers will also analyze methane data from EMIT. The JPL-managed imaging spectrometer was installed on the International Space Station in July 2022 to measure the mineral content of the surface of major dust-producing regions on Earth.

In October, scientists proved that EMIT can also identify methane gas from “super-radiation”. In doing so, the team added another tool to support NASA’s broader efforts to monitor greenhouse gases.

“NASA JPL has a decades-long track record of using airborne imaging spectrometers to make high-quality observations of source emissions,” said Robert Green, EMIT principal investigator at JPL. methane point. “With EMIT, we have used similar technology in an instrument in space, allowing us to gather information about local sources of methane from orbit.”

After the first year of the Carbon Mapper project, the researchers will conduct a broader survey of more than 10,000 landfills around the world using two satellites in the Carbon Mapper satellite program. The pair of spacecraft will be equipped with imaging spectrometer technology developed at JPL. The team is targeting a launch by the end of 2023 in collaboration with Planet Labs PBC, among other partners.

Data from the project will be accessed at Carbon map data portal.

For more details about EMIT, visit:

https://earth.jpl.nasa.gov/emit/

More information about quests

EMIT was selected from the Earth Venture Instrument-4 offer of the Earth Science Division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate and was developed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managed for the agency by Caltech in Pasadena, California. The device’s data will be transferred to NASA Land Processes Distributed Operations Storage Center (DAAC) for use by other researchers and the general public.

The Next Generation Air-Infrared/Visible Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS-NG) is built at JPL and is designed to measure light wavelengths from 380 to 2,510 nanometers. It has performed many missions, studying phenomena such as plant ecology, mineralogy, glacial hydrology, and environmental hazards.

Carbon Mapper is a non-profit organization focused on supporting timely action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Its mission is to fill gaps in the emerging global ecosystem of methane and carbon dioxide monitoring systems by providing accurate, timely, and baseline data. accessible to empower science-based decision-making and action. The organization is leading the development of the Carbon Mapper satellite constellation supported by a public-private partnership that includes Planet Labs PBC, JPL, California Air Resources Commission, University of Arizona, State University Arizona and RMI, with funding from the High Tide Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, and other philanthropic donors.