Articles | Volume 26, issue 14
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-10629-2026
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-10629-2026
Research article
 | 
30 Jul 2026
Research article |  | 30 Jul 2026

Quantifying national, state, and oil/gas field methane emissions and trends in the US (2019–2024) through high resolution inversion of satellite observations

Lucas A. Estrada, Daniel J. Jacob, Megan He, James D. East, Daniel J. Varon, Nicholas Balasus, Sarah E. Hancock, Melissa Sulprizio, Kevin W. Bowman, John R. Worden, Emily Reidy, and Benjamin R. K. Runkle

Related authors

Applying satellite observations to improve bottom-up national emission inventories for methane: application to Colombia
Sarah E. Hancock, Daniel J. Jacob, Rodrigo Jimenez, Andrés Ardila, Luis Morales-Rincon, Néstor Rojas, Lucas A. Estrada, Nicholas Balasus, James D. East, Melissa P. Sulprizio, Xiaolin Wang, James L. France, Lauren Potyk, Elise Penn, Zichong Chen, Daniel J. Varon, Christian Frankenberg, Marci Baranski, Andreea Calcan, and Robert J. Parker
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 26, 10455–10476, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-10455-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-10455-2026, 2026
Short summary
Top-down benchmark of US methane inventories reveals regional discrepancies in activity-based estimates
John Worden, Sudhanshu Pandey, Hannah Nesser, Kevin Bowman, Colin Harkins, Congmeng Lyu, Joannes D. Maasakkers, Deborah Gordon, Daniel Jacob, Lucas Estrada, Daniel J. Varon, James D. East, Lauren Schmeisser, and Zhen Qu
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 26, 8855–8873, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-8855-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-8855-2026, 2026
Short summary
2019–2024 trends in African livestock and wetland emissions as contributors to the global methane rise
Nicholas Balasus, Daniel J. Jacob, A. Anthony Bloom, James D. East, Lucas A. Estrada, Sarah E. Hancock, Megan He, Todd A. Mooring, Alexander J. Turner, and John R. Worden
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 26, 4601–4617, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-4601-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-4601-2026, 2026
Short summary
Evaluating national, state, and urban Indian methane emissions using satellites
Srijana Lama, Joannes D. Maasakkers, Xin Zhang, Marianne Girard, Swarna Dutt, Suyash Nandgaonkar, Daniel J. Varon, Melissa P. Sulprizio, Lucas A. Estrada, Nicholas Balasus, Robert J. Parker, Yukio Terao, and Ilse Aben
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-6528,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-6528, 2026
Short summary
Integrating MethaneAIR aircraft and TROPOMI satellite observations in the Integrated Methane Inversion (IMI) to optimize methane emissions
Jack H. Bruno, Daniel J. Jacob, Xiaolin Wang, Melissa P. Sulprizio, Lucas A. Estrada, Daniel J. Varon, Steven C. Wofsy, Mark Omara, and Ritesh Gautam
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-4626,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-4626, 2025
Short summary

Cited articles

Allen, D., Tullos, E., Chen, Q., Kimura, Y., Lyon, D., Patsche, L., and Thompson, E.: Greenhouse Gas Inventory for Texas, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, https://www.tceq.texas.gov/downloads/agency/climate-pollution-reduction-grants/texas-cap-v5-appendix-b-ghg-inventory.pdf (last access: 1 July 2026), 2025. 
Appuhamy, R. and Kebreab, E.: Characterizing California-specific Cattle Feed Rations and Improve Modeling of Enteric Fermentation for California's Greenhouse Gas Inventory, California Environmental Protection Agency, Air Resources Board, Research Division, 52 pp., https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/classic/research/apr/past/16rd001.pdf (last access: 4 December 2025), 2018. 
Balasus, N., Jacob, D. J., Lorente, A., Maasakkers, J. D., Parker, R. J., Boesch, H., Chen, Z., Kelp, M. M., Nesser, H., and Varon, D. J.: A blended TROPOMI+GOSAT satellite data product for atmospheric methane using machine learning to correct retrieval biases, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 3787–3807, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3787-2023, 2023. 
Balasus, N., Jacob, D. J., Maxemin, G., Jenks, C., Nesser, H., Maasakkers, J. D., Cusworth, D. H., Scarpelli, T. R., Varon, D. J., and Wang, X.: Satellite monitoring of annual US landfill methane emissions and trends, Environ. Res. Lett., 20, 024007, https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ada2b1, 2025. 
Download
Short summary
We use satellite observations to track US methane emissions from 2019–2024 at national, state, and oil and gas field scales. While total emissions remain stable, oil and gas emissions decline even as production rises, indicating progress in emissions management for the oil and gas sector.
Share
Altmetrics
Final-revised paper
Preprint