NASA's Powerful Instrument Discovers Dozens Of Methane Super-Emitting Sources In Space

More than 50 methane “super-emitters” have been observed by NASA in Central Asia, the Middle East, and the southwestern United States.

Credits- NASA.gov

Super-emitters space by NASA

Primarily designed to advance the study of airborne dust and its effects on climate change, this one-orbital NASA instrument has proven to be quite efficient in another major Earth-science task—large, worldwide emissions of methane, a Detects powerful greenhouse gas.

More than 50 methane “super-emitters” have been identified in Central Asia, the Middle East, and the southwestern United States by a device called the Imaging Spectrometer since it was installed on the International Space Station in July, NASA said Tuesday.

What is Methane?
Methane is a gas that is found in tiny amounts in Earth’s atmosphere. Methane is the easiest hydrocarbon, comprising one carbon atom and four hydrogen atoms (CH4). Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas. It is combustible and is utilized as a fuel in the world.

Newly measured methane hot-spots – some previously known and others just discovered. These comprise huge oil and gas facilities and large landfills.

The spectrometer was designed specially to notice the mineral composition of dust blowing into the atmosphere from Earth’s deserts and other arid regions by measuring the wavelengths of light reflected from surface soils in those regions.

NASA stands for Surface Mineral Dust Investigation, or EMIT helps scientists determine whether wind-blown dust in different parts of the world is likely to trap or deflect heat from the Sun, thus helping it contribute to the heating or cooling of the planet.

Scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) near Los Angeles have discovered that methane absorbs infrared light in a unique pattern that EMITs spectrometer can easily detect, where the instrument was designed and built.

Orbiting Earth once every 90 minutes from its perch on the space station about 250 miles (420 km) high, this EMIT scans the huge path of the planet dozens of miles across, concentrating on small areas like a soccer field is also able to.

Some of the (methane) plumes EMIT detected are among the considerably enormous ever seen – unlike anything that has ever been observed from space, said Andrew Thorpe, a JPL research technologist overseeing the methane studies.

Methane, which is derived from decaying organic matter and forms a significant component of natural gas used in power generation, contributes a small proportion of human-induced greenhouse gas emissions. However, it possesses approximately 80 times more heat-trapping capacity than carbon dioxide.

While methane emissions are linked to carbon dioxide emissions, which can remain in the atmosphere for centuries, methane tends to persist for only about a decade. Consequently, decreasing methane emissions can have a more immediate impact on global warming.

On Tuesday, JPL displayed examples of methane super-emitters captured through recent imaging. These examples included a cluster of twelve plumes emanating from oil and gas infrastructure in Turkmenistan, with some of the plumes extending over twenty miles (thirty-two km).

Scientists calculate the Turkmenistan plumes thoroughly spew methane for 111,000 pounds (50,400 kilograms) per hour, challenging the peak cycle from the 2015 Aliso Canyon gas field blowout near Los Angeles that ranks as one of the biggest accidental methane releases in U.S. record.

Two additional vast emitters were an oilfield in New Mexico, and a waste-processing complex in Iran, emitting nearly sixty thousand pounds (29,000 kg) of methane per hour. JPL officials said neither was formerly familiar to scientists.

EMIT, one of twenty-five Earth science devices in its way could potentially reveal hundreds of methane super-emitters before its year-long mission ends, NASA notified.