Satellite quantification of methane emissions from South American countries: a high-resolution inversion of TROPOMI and GOSAT observations

Hancock, Sarah E.; Jacob, Daniel J.; Chen, Zichong; Nesser, Hannah; Davitt, Aaron; Varon, Daniel J.; Sulprizio, Melissa P.; Balasus, Nicholas; Estrada, Lucas A.; Cazorla, María; Dawidowski, Laura; Diez, Sebastián; East, James D.; Penn, Elise; Randles, Cynthia A.; Worden, John; Aben, Ilse; Parker, Robert J.; Maasakkers, Joannes D.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-797-2025

Articles | Volume 25, issue 2

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-797-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-797-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 25, issue 2

Research article

|

21 Jan 2025

Research article |

| 21 Jan 2025

Satellite quantification of methane emissions from South American countries: a high-resolution inversion of TROPOMI and GOSAT observations

Sarah E. Hancock, Daniel J. Jacob, Zichong Chen, Hannah Nesser, Aaron Davitt, Daniel J. Varon, Melissa P. Sulprizio, Nicholas Balasus, Lucas A. Estrada, María Cazorla, Laura Dawidowski, Sebastián Diez, James D. East, Elise Penn, Cynthia A. Randles, John Worden, Ilse Aben, Robert J. Parker, and Joannes D. Maasakkers

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-797-2025-supplement

Data sets

A blended TROPOMI+GOSAT satellite data product for atmospheric methane using machine learning to correct retrieval biases, Atmospheric Measurement Techniques (https://registry.opendata.aws/blended-tropomi-gosat-methane) N. Balasus et al. https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3787-2023

University of Leicester GOSAT Proxy XCH4 v9.0 R. Parker and H. Boesch https://doi.org/10.5285/18EF8247F52A4CB6A14013F8235CC1EB

Global Fuel Exploitation Inventory (GFEI) T. R. Scarpelli and D. J. Jacob https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/HH4EUM

EDGAR v7 Greenhouse Gas Emissions M. Crippa et al. https://edgar.jrc.ec.europa.eu/dataset_ghg70

CMS: Global 0.5-deg Wetland Methane Emissions and Uncertainty (WetCHARTs v1.3.3) A. A. Bloom et al. https://doi.org/10.3334/ORNLDAAC/1915

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Short summary

We quantify 2021 methane emissions in South America at up to 25 km × 25 km resolution using satellite methane observations. We find a 55 % upward adjustment to anthropogenic emission inventories, including those reported to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change under the Paris Agreement. Our estimates match inventories for Brazil, Bolivia, and Paraguay but are much higher for other countries. Livestock emissions (65 % of anthropogenic emissions) show the largest discrepancies.