Articles | Volume 26, issue 9
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-5961-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-5961-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
05 May 2026
Research article |
| 05 May 2026
| 05 May 2026
Methane intensity and emissions across major oil and gas basins and individual jurisdictions using MethaneSAT observations
Environmental Defense Fund, New York, NY 10010, USA
MethaneSAT, LLC, Austin, TX 78701, USA
Joshua Benmergui
Environmental Defense Fund, New York, NY 10010, USA
MethaneSAT, LLC, Austin, TX 78701, USA
Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
Marvin Knapp
Environmental Defense Fund, New York, NY 10010, USA
MethaneSAT, LLC, Austin, TX 78701, USA
Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
Mark Omara
Environmental Defense Fund, New York, NY 10010, USA
MethaneSAT, LLC, Austin, TX 78701, USA
Anthony Himmelberger
Environmental Defense Fund, New York, NY 10010, USA
MethaneSAT, LLC, Austin, TX 78701, USA
Ethan Kyzivat
Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
Kaiya Weatherby
Environmental Defense Fund, New York, NY 10010, USA
MethaneSAT, LLC, Austin, TX 78701, USA
Ben Lyke
Environmental Defense Fund, New York, NY 10010, USA
MethaneSAT, LLC, Austin, TX 78701, USA
Jack Warren
Environmental Defense Fund, New York, NY 10010, USA
MethaneSAT, LLC, Austin, TX 78701, USA
Katlyn MacKay
Environmental Defense Fund, New York, NY 10010, USA
MethaneSAT, LLC, Austin, TX 78701, USA
Sasha Ayvazov
MethaneSAT, LLC, Austin, TX 78701, USA
Marcus Russi
MethaneSAT, LLC, Austin, TX 78701, USA
Nicholas LoFaso
MethaneSAT, LLC, Austin, TX 78701, USA
Tom Melendez
MethaneSAT, LLC, Austin, TX 78701, USA
Christopher C. Miller
Environmental Defense Fund, New York, NY 10010, USA
MethaneSAT, LLC, Austin, TX 78701, USA
Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
Sebastien Roche
Environmental Defense Fund, New York, NY 10010, USA
MethaneSAT, LLC, Austin, TX 78701, USA
Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
Maryann Sargent
Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
Jonathan Franklin
Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
Maya Nasr
Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
Zhan Zhang
Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
David J. Miller
Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
Bingkun Luo
Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
Luis Guanter
Environmental Defense Fund, New York, NY 10010, USA
Research Institute of Water and Environmental Engineering (IIAMA), Universitat Politècnica de València, Valencia, Spain
Steven P. Hamburg
Environmental Defense Fund, New York, NY 10010, USA
MethaneSAT, LLC, Austin, TX 78701, USA
Steven C. Wofsy
Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
Ritesh Gautam
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Environmental Defense Fund, New York, NY 10010, USA
MethaneSAT, LLC, Austin, TX 78701, USA
Related authors
Luis Guanter, Javier Roger, Jack Warren, Maryann Sargent, Zhan Zhang, Sébastien Roche, Christopher Chan Miller, Michael Steiner, Harvey Hadfield, Mark Omara, James Williams, Katlyn MacKay, Jonathan E. Franklin, Bingkun Luo, Steven C. Wofsy, Steven P. Hamburg, and Ritesh Gautam
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 26, 2941–2963, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-2941-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-2941-2026, 2026
Short summary
Short summary
We evaluate the potential of the MethaneSAT satellite mission to detect and quantify methane plumes from high emitting point sources and use the existing MethaneSAT data archive to evaluate super-emissions from the most important oil and gas basins in the world.
Zhan Zhang, Maryann Sargent, Jack D. Warren, Apisada Chulakadabba, Marcus Russi, Sasha Ayvazov, Joshua Benmergui, Marvin Knapp, Ethan Kyzivat, Christopher C. Miller, Sébastien Roche, Bingkun Luo, David J. Miller, Maya Nasr, Kang Sun, James P. Williams, Katlyn MacKay, Mark Omara, Luis Guanter, Ritesh Gautam, Jonathan Franklin, Xiong Liu, and Steven C. Wofsy
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-141, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-141, 2026
Short summary
Short summary
Accurate plume identification from satellite imagery is important for measuring methane emissions, but weak signals often require time-consuming human inspection. We developed an automatic plume masking method that enhances plume patterns while reducing background noise based on wavelet transform image processing. The method finds more small emission sources with fewer false detections and works efficiently across different instruments, helping build a more complete picture of methane emissions.
Katlyn MacKay, Joshua Benmergui, James P. Williams, Mark Omara, Anthony Himmelberger, Maryann Sargent, Jack D. Warren, Christopher C. Miller, Sébastien Roche, Zhan Zhang, Jonathan Franklin, Luis Guanter, Steven Wofsy, and Ritesh Gautam
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 26, 1179–1192, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-1179-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-1179-2026, 2026
Short summary
Short summary
Reducing methane emissions from the oil/gas sector can mitigate near-term climate warming and the losses of a valuable energy resource. We analyze data collected using MethaneAIR to assess methane emissions in regions accounting for 70 % of United States onshore oil/gas production in 2023. We estimate total oil/gas methane emissions across all measured regions to be ~8 Tg/yr, equivalent to 1.6 % of produced gas, which is five times higher than reported by the US Environmental Protection Agency.
Jack D. Warren, Maryann Sargent, James P. Williams, Mark Omara, Christopher C. Miller, Sebastien Roche, Katlyn MacKay, Ethan Manninen, Apisada Chulakadabba, Anthony Himmelberger, Joshua Benmergui, Zhan Zhang, Luis Guanter, Steve Wofsy, and Ritesh Gautam
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 10661–10675, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-10661-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-10661-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Mitigating anthropogenic methane emissions requires a detailed understanding of emitting facilities. We use observations of methane point sources from the MethaneAIR instrument from 2021–2023 that covered ~80 % of US onshore oil and gas production regions. We attribute these observations to facility types to explore how emissions vary by industrial sectors. Oil and gas facilities make up most point source emissions nationally, but in certain basins other sectors can make up the majority.
James P. Williams, Mark Omara, Anthony Himmelberger, Daniel Zavala-Araiza, Katlyn MacKay, Joshua Benmergui, Maryann Sargent, Steven C. Wofsy, Steven P. Hamburg, and Ritesh Gautam
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 1513–1532, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1513-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1513-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
We utilize peer-reviewed facility-level oil and gas methane emission rate data gathered in prior work to estimate the relative contributions of methane sources emitting at different emission rates in the United States. We find that the majority of total methane emissions in the US oil and gas sector stem from a large number of small sources emitting in aggregate, corroborating findings from several other studies.
Mark Omara, Anthony Himmelberger, Katlyn MacKay, James P. Williams, Joshua Benmergui, Maryann Sargent, Steven C. Wofsy, and Ritesh Gautam
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 3973–3991, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-3973-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-3973-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
We review, analyze, and synthesize previous peer-reviewed measurement-based data on facility-level oil and gas methane emissions and use these data to develop a high-resolution spatially explicit inventory of US basin-level and national methane emissions. This work provides an improved assessment of national methane emissions relative to government inventories in support of accurate and comprehensive methane emissions assessment, attribution, and mitigation.
James P. Williams, Khalil El Hachem, and Mary Kang
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 3421–3435, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3421-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3421-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Methane is powerful greenhouse gas; thus, to reduce methane emissions, it is important that the methods used to measure methane are tested and validated. The static chamber method is an enclosure-based technique that directly measures methane emissions; however, it has not been thoroughly tested for the new variety of methane sources that it is currently being used for. We find that the static chamber method can accurately measure methane emissions under a wide range of methane emission rates.
Luis Guanter, Javier Roger, Jack Warren, Maryann Sargent, Zhan Zhang, Sébastien Roche, Christopher Chan Miller, Michael Steiner, Harvey Hadfield, Mark Omara, James Williams, Katlyn MacKay, Jonathan E. Franklin, Bingkun Luo, Steven C. Wofsy, Steven P. Hamburg, and Ritesh Gautam
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 26, 2941–2963, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-2941-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-2941-2026, 2026
Short summary
Short summary
We evaluate the potential of the MethaneSAT satellite mission to detect and quantify methane plumes from high emitting point sources and use the existing MethaneSAT data archive to evaluate super-emissions from the most important oil and gas basins in the world.
Penelope Smale, Alexander Geddes, Sara Mikaloff-Fletcher, Zhan Zhang, Apisada Chulakadabba, MaryAnn Sargent, Steven Wofsy, Joseph Rudek, Jonathan Franklin, and Jack Warren
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-6237, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-6237, 2026
Short summary
Short summary
MethaneAIR, was used to quantify methane emissions from concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) using a novel scene-based approach along with wavelet denoising. Analysis revealed consistently elevated emissions compared to inventory and high variability potentially attributable to the interaction of wind and waste management systems. Findings highlight MethaneAIR's capability and the potential of MethaneSAT and other satellites to improve agricultural methane inventories.
Ethan Manninen, Apisada Chulakadabba, Maryann Sargent, Zhan Zhang, Harshil Kamdar, Jack Warren, Sébastien Roche, Christopher Chan Miller, Ethan Kyzivat, Joshua Benmergui, Jasna Pittman, Eleanor Walker, Jacob Bushey, Jenna Samra, Jacob Hawthorne, Bingkun Luo, Maya Nasr, Kang Sun, Jonathan Franklin, Xiong Liu, Jia Chen, and Steven Wofsy
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-115, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-115, 2026
Short summary
Short summary
In this work, my coauthors and I interpret methane emissions observed by remote sensing systems as plumes, or point sources. We model the probability that a general imaging spectrometer will detect a plume, and apply this framework to multiple remote sensing systems. We show how two recent systems- MethanAIR and MethaneSAT- provide enough sensitivity to facility scale point sources to effectively characterize most plume emissions in the Permian Basin.
Zhan Zhang, Maryann Sargent, Jack D. Warren, Apisada Chulakadabba, Marcus Russi, Sasha Ayvazov, Joshua Benmergui, Marvin Knapp, Ethan Kyzivat, Christopher C. Miller, Sébastien Roche, Bingkun Luo, David J. Miller, Maya Nasr, Kang Sun, James P. Williams, Katlyn MacKay, Mark Omara, Luis Guanter, Ritesh Gautam, Jonathan Franklin, Xiong Liu, and Steven C. Wofsy
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-141, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-141, 2026
Short summary
Short summary
Accurate plume identification from satellite imagery is important for measuring methane emissions, but weak signals often require time-consuming human inspection. We developed an automatic plume masking method that enhances plume patterns while reducing background noise based on wavelet transform image processing. The method finds more small emission sources with fewer false detections and works efficiently across different instruments, helping build a more complete picture of methane emissions.
Friedrich Klappenbach, Jia Chen, Moritz Makowski, Andreas Luther, Ronald C. Cohen, Jonathan E. Franklin, Steven Wofsy, and Taylor Jones
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-204, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-204, 2026
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Atmospheric Measurement Techniques (AMT).
Short summary
Short summary
This work presents a method to infer the upwind distance of emission sources from observed peak enhancements in atmospheric trace gas measurements. Using meteorological model output, the expected dilution of emissions from candidate source locations is quantified and compared with the observed concentration signals. The method enables the identification of plausible source locations and provides quantitative estimates of their emission strengths.
Katlyn MacKay, Joshua Benmergui, James P. Williams, Mark Omara, Anthony Himmelberger, Maryann Sargent, Jack D. Warren, Christopher C. Miller, Sébastien Roche, Zhan Zhang, Jonathan Franklin, Luis Guanter, Steven Wofsy, and Ritesh Gautam
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 26, 1179–1192, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-1179-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-1179-2026, 2026
Short summary
Short summary
Reducing methane emissions from the oil/gas sector can mitigate near-term climate warming and the losses of a valuable energy resource. We analyze data collected using MethaneAIR to assess methane emissions in regions accounting for 70 % of United States onshore oil/gas production in 2023. We estimate total oil/gas methane emissions across all measured regions to be ~8 Tg/yr, equivalent to 1.6 % of produced gas, which is five times higher than reported by the US Environmental Protection Agency.
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
Short summary
We use data from both aircraft (MethaneAIR) and satellite (TROPOMI) based measurements of methane in the atmosphere to better understand methane emissions from fossil fuel extraction. Data from these instruments are combined with a computer model of the atmosphere to improve estimates of methane emissions. We find that combining data from multiple sources provides more information than either source on its own. The tools and data we use are freely available.
Jack D. Warren, Maryann Sargent, James P. Williams, Mark Omara, Christopher C. Miller, Sebastien Roche, Katlyn MacKay, Ethan Manninen, Apisada Chulakadabba, Anthony Himmelberger, Joshua Benmergui, Zhan Zhang, Luis Guanter, Steve Wofsy, and Ritesh Gautam
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 10661–10675, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-10661-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-10661-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Mitigating anthropogenic methane emissions requires a detailed understanding of emitting facilities. We use observations of methane point sources from the MethaneAIR instrument from 2021–2023 that covered ~80 % of US onshore oil and gas production regions. We attribute these observations to facility types to explore how emissions vary by industrial sectors. Oil and gas facilities make up most point source emissions nationally, but in certain basins other sectors can make up the majority.
Luis Guanter, Jack Warren, Mark Omara, Apisada Chulakadabba, Javier Roger, Maryann Sargent, Jonathan E. Franklin, Steven C. Wofsy, and Ritesh Gautam
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 3857–3872, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-3857-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-3857-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
This study presents a data processing scheme for the detection and quantification of methane emissions using the MethaneAIR airborne spectrometer. We show that the proposed methods enable the detection of smaller plumes (compared with those detectable using other existing methods) and improve the potential of MethaneAIR to survey methane point sources across large regions.
Jasna V. Pittman, Bruce C. Daube, Steven C. Wofsy, Elliot L. Atlas, Maria A. Navarro, Eric J. Hintsa, Fred L. Moore, Geoff S. Dutton, James W. Elkins, Troy D. Thornberry, Andrew W. Rollins, Eric J. Jensen, Thaopaul Bui, Jonathan Dean-Day, and Leonhard Pfister
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 7543–7562, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-7543-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-7543-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Biomass fires emit aerosols and precursors that can provide a novel environment for initiating stratospheric ozone loss. The Airborne Tropical TRopopause EXperiment campaign sampled the western Pacific, the dominant longitudes for surface air lofted by convection to enter the global stratosphere. Aircraft measurements over multiple flights revealed persistent layers of biomass burning pollutants entering the lower stratosphere and originating from fires as far away as Africa and Indonesia.
James P. Williams, Mark Omara, Anthony Himmelberger, Daniel Zavala-Araiza, Katlyn MacKay, Joshua Benmergui, Maryann Sargent, Steven C. Wofsy, Steven P. Hamburg, and Ritesh Gautam
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 1513–1532, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1513-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1513-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
We utilize peer-reviewed facility-level oil and gas methane emission rate data gathered in prior work to estimate the relative contributions of methane sources emitting at different emission rates in the United States. We find that the majority of total methane emissions in the US oil and gas sector stem from a large number of small sources emitting in aggregate, corroborating findings from several other studies.
Christopher Chan Miller, Sébastien Roche, Jonas S. Wilzewski, Xiong Liu, Kelly Chance, Amir H. Souri, Eamon Conway, Bingkun Luo, Jenna Samra, Jacob Hawthorne, Kang Sun, Carly Staebell, Apisada Chulakadabba, Maryann Sargent, Joshua S. Benmergui, Jonathan E. Franklin, Bruce C. Daube, Yang Li, Joshua L. Laughner, Bianca C. Baier, Ritesh Gautam, Mark Omara, and Steven C. Wofsy
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 5429–5454, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5429-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5429-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
MethaneSAT is an upcoming satellite mission designed to monitor methane emissions from the oil and gas (O&G) industry globally. Here, we present observations from the first flight campaign of MethaneAIR, a MethaneSAT-like instrument mounted on an aircraft. MethaneAIR can map methane with high precision and accuracy over a typically sized oil and gas basin (~200 km2) in a single flight. This paper demonstrates the capability of the upcoming satellite to routinely track global O&G emissions.
Mark Omara, Anthony Himmelberger, Katlyn MacKay, James P. Williams, Joshua Benmergui, Maryann Sargent, Steven C. Wofsy, and Ritesh Gautam
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 3973–3991, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-3973-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-3973-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
We review, analyze, and synthesize previous peer-reviewed measurement-based data on facility-level oil and gas methane emissions and use these data to develop a high-resolution spatially explicit inventory of US basin-level and national methane emissions. This work provides an improved assessment of national methane emissions relative to government inventories in support of accurate and comprehensive methane emissions assessment, attribution, and mitigation.
Andrea E. Gordon, Cameron R. Homeyer, Jessica B. Smith, Rei Ueyama, Jonathan M. Dean-Day, Elliot L. Atlas, Kate Smith, Jasna V. Pittman, David S. Sayres, David M. Wilmouth, Apoorva Pandey, Jason M. St. Clair, Thomas F. Hanisco, Jennifer Hare, Reem A. Hannun, Steven Wofsy, Bruce C. Daube, and Stephen Donnelly
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 7591–7608, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-7591-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-7591-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
In situ airborne observations of ongoing tropopause-overshooting convection and an above-anvil cirrus plume from the 31 May 2022 flight of the Dynamics and Chemistry of the Summer Stratosphere (DCOTSS) field campaign are examined. Upper troposphere and lower stratosphere composition changes are evaluated along with possible contributing dynamical and physical processes. Measurements reveal multiple changes in air mass composition and stratospheric hydration throughout the flight.
Brian Nathan, Joannes D. Maasakkers, Stijn Naus, Ritesh Gautam, Mark Omara, Daniel J. Varon, Melissa P. Sulprizio, Lucas A. Estrada, Alba Lorente, Tobias Borsdorff, Robert J. Parker, and Ilse Aben
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 6845–6863, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-6845-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-6845-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Venezuela's Lake Maracaibo region is notoriously hard to observe from space and features intensive oil exploitation, although production has strongly decreased in recent years. We estimate methane emissions using 2018–2020 TROPOMI satellite observations with national and regional transport models. Despite the production decrease, we find relatively constant emissions from Lake Maracaibo between 2018 and 2020, indicating that there could be large emissions from abandoned infrastructure.
Joshua L. Laughner, Geoffrey C. Toon, Joseph Mendonca, Christof Petri, Sébastien Roche, Debra Wunch, Jean-Francois Blavier, David W. T. Griffith, Pauli Heikkinen, Ralph F. Keeling, Matthäus Kiel, Rigel Kivi, Coleen M. Roehl, Britton B. Stephens, Bianca C. Baier, Huilin Chen, Yonghoon Choi, Nicholas M. Deutscher, Joshua P. DiGangi, Jochen Gross, Benedikt Herkommer, Pascal Jeseck, Thomas Laemmel, Xin Lan, Erin McGee, Kathryn McKain, John Miller, Isamu Morino, Justus Notholt, Hirofumi Ohyama, David F. Pollard, Markus Rettinger, Haris Riris, Constantina Rousogenous, Mahesh Kumar Sha, Kei Shiomi, Kimberly Strong, Ralf Sussmann, Yao Té, Voltaire A. Velazco, Steven C. Wofsy, Minqiang Zhou, and Paul O. Wennberg
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 2197–2260, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-2197-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-2197-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
This paper describes a new version, called GGG2020, of a data set containing column-integrated observations of greenhouse and related gases (including CO2, CH4, CO, and N2O) made by ground stations located around the world. Compared to the previous version (GGG2014), improvements have been made toward site-to-site consistency. This data set plays a key role in validating space-based greenhouse gas observations and in understanding the carbon cycle.
Piyushkumar N. Patel, Jonathan H. Jiang, Ritesh Gautam, Harish Gadhavi, Olga Kalashnikova, Michael J. Garay, Lan Gao, Feng Xu, and Ali Omar
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 2861–2883, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-2861-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-2861-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Global measurements of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) are essential for understanding aerosol–cloud interactions and predicting climate change. To address this gap, we introduced a remote sensing algorithm that retrieves vertically resolved CCN number concentrations from airborne and spaceborne lidar systems. This innovation offers a global distribution of CCN concentrations from space, facilitating model evaluation and precise quantification of aerosol climate forcing.
Eamon K. Conway, Amir H. Souri, Joshua Benmergui, Kang Sun, Xiong Liu, Carly Staebell, Christopher Chan Miller, Jonathan Franklin, Jenna Samra, Jonas Wilzewski, Sebastien Roche, Bingkun Luo, Apisada Chulakadabba, Maryann Sargent, Jacob Hohl, Bruce Daube, Iouli Gordon, Kelly Chance, and Steven Wofsy
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 1347–1362, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1347-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1347-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
The work presented here describes the processes required to convert raw sensor data for the MethaneAIR instrument to geometrically calibrated data. Each algorithm is described in detail. MethaneAIR is the airborne simulator for MethaneSAT, a new satellite under development by MethaneSAT LLC, a subsidiary of the EDF. MethaneSAT's goals are to precisely map over 80 % of the production sources of methane emissions from oil and gas fields across the globe to a high degree of accuracy.
Apisada Chulakadabba, Maryann Sargent, Thomas Lauvaux, Joshua S. Benmergui, Jonathan E. Franklin, Christopher Chan Miller, Jonas S. Wilzewski, Sébastien Roche, Eamon Conway, Amir H. Souri, Kang Sun, Bingkun Luo, Jacob Hawthrone, Jenna Samra, Bruce C. Daube, Xiong Liu, Kelly Chance, Yang Li, Ritesh Gautam, Mark Omara, Jeff S. Rutherford, Evan D. Sherwin, Adam Brandt, and Steven C. Wofsy
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 5771–5785, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5771-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5771-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
We show that MethaneAIR, a precursor to the MethaneSAT satellite, demonstrates accurate point source quantification during controlled release experiments and regional observations in 2021 and 2022. Results from our two independent quantification methods suggest the accuracy of our sensor and algorithms is better than 25 % for sources emitting 200 kg h−1 or more. Insights from these measurements help establish the capabilities of MethaneSAT and MethaneAIR.
Berend J. Schuit, Joannes D. Maasakkers, Pieter Bijl, Gourav Mahapatra, Anne-Wil van den Berg, Sudhanshu Pandey, Alba Lorente, Tobias Borsdorff, Sander Houweling, Daniel J. Varon, Jason McKeever, Dylan Jervis, Marianne Girard, Itziar Irakulis-Loitxate, Javier Gorroño, Luis Guanter, Daniel H. Cusworth, and Ilse Aben
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 9071–9098, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-9071-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-9071-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Using two machine learning models, which were trained on TROPOMI methane satellite data, we detect 2974 methane plumes, so-called super-emitters, in 2021. We detect methane emissions globally related to urban areas or landfills, coal mining, and oil and gas production. Using our monitoring system, we identify 94 regions with frequent emissions. For 12 locations, we target high-resolution satellite instruments to enlarge and identify the exact infrastructure responsible for the emissions.
Mark Omara, Ritesh Gautam, Madeleine A. O'Brien, Anthony Himmelberger, Alex Franco, Kelsey Meisenhelder, Grace Hauser, David R. Lyon, Apisada Chulakadabba, Christopher Chan Miller, Jonathan Franklin, Steven C. Wofsy, and Steven P. Hamburg
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 3761–3790, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-3761-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-3761-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
We acquire, integrate, and analyze ~ 6 million geospatial oil and gas infrastructure data records based on information available in the public domain and develop an open-access global database including all the major oil and gas facility types that are important sources of methane emissions. This work helps fulfill a crucial geospatial data need, in support of the assessment, attribution, and mitigation of global oil and gas methane emissions at high resolution.
Shoma Yamanouchi, Stephanie Conway, Kimberly Strong, Orfeo Colebatch, Erik Lutsch, Sébastien Roche, Jeffrey Taylor, Cynthia H. Whaley, and Aldona Wiacek
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 3387–3418, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-3387-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-3387-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Nineteen years of atmospheric composition measurements made at the University of Toronto Atmospheric Observatory (TAO; 43.66° N, 79.40° W; 174 m.a.s.l.) are presented. These are retrieved from Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) solar absorption spectra recorded with a spectrometer from May 2002 to December 2020. The retrievals have been optimized for fourteen species: O3, HCl, HF, HNO3, CH4, C2H6, CO, HCN, N2O, C2H2, H2CO, CH3OH, HCOOH, and NH3.
Daniel J. Varon, Daniel J. Jacob, Benjamin Hmiel, Ritesh Gautam, David R. Lyon, Mark Omara, Melissa Sulprizio, Lu Shen, Drew Pendergrass, Hannah Nesser, Zhen Qu, Zachary R. Barkley, Natasha L. Miles, Scott J. Richardson, Kenneth J. Davis, Sudhanshu Pandey, Xiao Lu, Alba Lorente, Tobias Borsdorff, Joannes D. Maasakkers, and Ilse Aben
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 7503–7520, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-7503-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-7503-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
We use TROPOMI satellite observations to quantify weekly methane emissions from the US Permian oil and gas basin from May 2018 to October 2020. We find that Permian emissions are highly variable, with diverse economic and activity drivers. The most important drivers during our study period were new well development and natural gas price. Permian methane intensity averaged 4.6 % and decreased by 1 % per year.
James P. Williams, Khalil El Hachem, and Mary Kang
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 3421–3435, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3421-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3421-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Methane is powerful greenhouse gas; thus, to reduce methane emissions, it is important that the methods used to measure methane are tested and validated. The static chamber method is an enclosure-based technique that directly measures methane emissions; however, it has not been thoroughly tested for the new variety of methane sources that it is currently being used for. We find that the static chamber method can accurately measure methane emissions under a wide range of methane emission rates.
Zichong Chen, Daniel J. Jacob, Ritesh Gautam, Mark Omara, Robert N. Stavins, Robert C. Stowe, Hannah Nesser, Melissa P. Sulprizio, Alba Lorente, Daniel J. Varon, Xiao Lu, Lu Shen, Zhen Qu, Drew C. Pendergrass, and Sarah Hancock
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 5945–5967, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-5945-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-5945-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
We quantify methane emissions from individual countries in the Middle East and North Africa by inverse analysis of 2019 TROPOMI satellite observations of atmospheric methane. We show that the ability to simply relate oil/gas emissions to activity metrics is compromised by stochastic nature of local infrastructure and management practices. We find that the industry target for oil/gas methane intensity is achievable through associated gas capture, modern infrastructure, and centralized operations.
Nasrin Mostafavi Pak, Jacob K. Hedelius, Sébastien Roche, Liz Cunningham, Bianca Baier, Colm Sweeney, Coleen Roehl, Joshua Laughner, Geoffrey Toon, Paul Wennberg, Harrison Parker, Colin Arrowsmith, Joseph Mendonca, Pierre Fogal, Tyler Wizenberg, Beatriz Herrera, Kimberly Strong, Kaley A. Walker, Felix Vogel, and Debra Wunch
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 1239–1261, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1239-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1239-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Ground-based remote sensing instruments in the Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON) measure greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Consistency between TCCON measurements is crucial to accurately infer changes in atmospheric composition. We use portable remote sensing instruments (EM27/SUN) to evaluate biases between TCCON stations in North America. We also improve the retrievals of EM27/SUN instruments and evaluate the previous (GGG2014) and newest (GGG2020) retrieval algorithms.
Joshua L. Laughner, Sébastien Roche, Matthäus Kiel, Geoffrey C. Toon, Debra Wunch, Bianca C. Baier, Sébastien Biraud, Huilin Chen, Rigel Kivi, Thomas Laemmel, Kathryn McKain, Pierre-Yves Quéhé, Constantina Rousogenous, Britton B. Stephens, Kaley Walker, and Paul O. Wennberg
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 1121–1146, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1121-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1121-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Observations using sunlight to measure surface-to-space total column of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere need an initial guess of the vertical distribution of those gases to start from. We have developed an approach to provide those initial guess profiles that uses readily available meteorological data as input. This lets us make these guesses without simulating them with a global model. The profiles generated this way match independent observations well.
Hao Guo, Clare M. Flynn, Michael J. Prather, Sarah A. Strode, Stephen D. Steenrod, Louisa Emmons, Forrest Lacey, Jean-Francois Lamarque, Arlene M. Fiore, Gus Correa, Lee T. Murray, Glenn M. Wolfe, Jason M. St. Clair, Michelle Kim, John Crounse, Glenn Diskin, Joshua DiGangi, Bruce C. Daube, Roisin Commane, Kathryn McKain, Jeff Peischl, Thomas B. Ryerson, Chelsea Thompson, Thomas F. Hanisco, Donald Blake, Nicola J. Blake, Eric C. Apel, Rebecca S. Hornbrook, James W. Elkins, Eric J. Hintsa, Fred L. Moore, and Steven C. Wofsy
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 99–117, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-99-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-99-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
We have prepared a unique and unusual result from the recent ATom aircraft mission: a measurement-based derivation of the production and loss rates of ozone and methane over the ocean basins. These are the key products of chemistry models used in assessments but have thus far lacked observational metrics. It also shows the scales of variability of atmospheric chemical rates and provides a major challenge to the atmospheric models.
Ali Jalali, Kaley A. Walker, Kimberly Strong, Rebecca R. Buchholz, Merritt N. Deeter, Debra Wunch, Sébastien Roche, Tyler Wizenberg, Erik Lutsch, Erin McGee, Helen M. Worden, Pierre Fogal, and James R. Drummond
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 6837–6863, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-6837-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-6837-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
This study validates MOPITT version 8 carbon monoxide measurements over the Canadian high Arctic for the period 2006 to 2019. The MOPITT products from different detector pixels and channels are compared with ground-based measurements from the Polar Environment Atmospheric Research Laboratory (PEARL) in Eureka, Nunavut, Canada. These results show good consistency between the satellite and ground-based measurements and provide guidance on the usage of these MOPITT data at high latitudes.
Lu Shen, Ritesh Gautam, Mark Omara, Daniel Zavala-Araiza, Joannes D. Maasakkers, Tia R. Scarpelli, Alba Lorente, David Lyon, Jianxiong Sheng, Daniel J. Varon, Hannah Nesser, Zhen Qu, Xiao Lu, Melissa P. Sulprizio, Steven P. Hamburg, and Daniel J. Jacob
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 11203–11215, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-11203-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-11203-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
We use 22 months of TROPOMI satellite observations to quantity methane emissions from the oil (O) and natural gas (G) sector in the US and Canada at the scale of both individual basins as well as country-wide aggregates. We find that O/G-related methane emissions are underestimated in these inventories by 80 % for the US and 40 % for Canada, and 70 % of the underestimate in the US is from five O/G basins, including Permian, Haynesville, Anadarko, Eagle Ford, and Barnett.
Daniel J. Jacob, Daniel J. Varon, Daniel H. Cusworth, Philip E. Dennison, Christian Frankenberg, Ritesh Gautam, Luis Guanter, John Kelley, Jason McKeever, Lesley E. Ott, Benjamin Poulter, Zhen Qu, Andrew K. Thorpe, John R. Worden, and Riley M. Duren
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 9617–9646, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-9617-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-9617-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
We review the capability of satellite observations of atmospheric methane to quantify methane emissions on all scales. We cover retrieval methods, precision requirements, inverse methods for inferring emissions, source detection thresholds, and observations of system completeness. We show that current instruments already enable quantification of regional and national emissions including contributions from large point sources. Coverage and resolution will increase significantly in coming years.
Ilissa B. Ocko and Steven P. Hamburg
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 9349–9368, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-9349-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-9349-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Hydrogen is considered a key strategy to decarbonize the global economy. However, hydrogen is also a short-lived indirect greenhouse gas that can easily leak into the atmosphere. Given that the climate impacts from hydrogen emissions are not well understood, especially in the near term, we assess impacts over all timescales for plausible emissions rates. We find that hydrogen leakage can cause more warming than widely perceived; thus, attention is needed to minimize emissions.
Kang Sun, Mahdi Yousefi, Christopher Chan Miller, Kelly Chance, Gonzalo González Abad, Iouli E. Gordon, Xiong Liu, Ewan O'Sullivan, Christopher E. Sioris, and Steven C. Wofsy
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 3721–3745, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-3721-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-3721-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
This study of upper atmospheric airglow from oxygen is motivated by the need to measure oxygen simultaneously with methane and CO2 in satellite remote sensing. We provide an accurate understanding of the spatial, temporal, and spectral distribution of airglow emissions, which will help in the satellite remote sensing of greenhouse gases and constraining the chemical and physical processes in the upper atmosphere.
Carlos Alberti, Frank Hase, Matthias Frey, Darko Dubravica, Thomas Blumenstock, Angelika Dehn, Paolo Castracane, Gregor Surawicz, Roland Harig, Bianca C. Baier, Caroline Bès, Jianrong Bi, Hartmut Boesch, André Butz, Zhaonan Cai, Jia Chen, Sean M. Crowell, Nicholas M. Deutscher, Dragos Ene, Jonathan E. Franklin, Omaira García, David Griffith, Bruno Grouiez, Michel Grutter, Abdelhamid Hamdouni, Sander Houweling, Neil Humpage, Nicole Jacobs, Sujong Jeong, Lilian Joly, Nicholas B. Jones, Denis Jouglet, Rigel Kivi, Ralph Kleinschek, Morgan Lopez, Diogo J. Medeiros, Isamu Morino, Nasrin Mostafavipak, Astrid Müller, Hirofumi Ohyama, Paul I. Palmer, Mahesh Pathakoti, David F. Pollard, Uwe Raffalski, Michel Ramonet, Robbie Ramsay, Mahesh Kumar Sha, Kei Shiomi, William Simpson, Wolfgang Stremme, Youwen Sun, Hiroshi Tanimoto, Yao Té, Gizaw Mengistu Tsidu, Voltaire A. Velazco, Felix Vogel, Masataka Watanabe, Chong Wei, Debra Wunch, Marcia Yamasoe, Lu Zhang, and Johannes Orphal
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 2433–2463, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-2433-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-2433-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Space-borne greenhouse gas missions require ground-based validation networks capable of providing fiducial reference measurements. Here, considerable refinements of the calibration procedures for the COllaborative Carbon Column Observing Network (COCCON) are presented. Laboratory and solar side-by-side procedures for the characterization of the spectrometers have been refined and extended. Revised calibration factors for XCO2, XCO and XCH4 are provided, incorporating 47 new spectrometers.
Lei Hu, Stephen A. Montzka, Fred Moore, Eric Hintsa, Geoff Dutton, M. Carolina Siso, Kirk Thoning, Robert W. Portmann, Kathryn McKain, Colm Sweeney, Isaac Vimont, David Nance, Bradley Hall, and Steven Wofsy
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 2891–2907, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-2891-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-2891-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
The unexpected increase in CFC-11 emissions between 2012 and 2017 resulted in concerns about delaying the stratospheric ozone recovery. Although the subsequent decline of CFC-11 emissions indicated a mitigation in part to this problem, the regions fully responsible for these large emission changes were unclear. Here, our new estimate, based on atmospheric measurements from two global campaigns and from NOAA, suggests Asia primarily contributed to the global CFC-11 emission rise during 2012–2017.
Xiao Lu, Daniel J. Jacob, Haolin Wang, Joannes D. Maasakkers, Yuzhong Zhang, Tia R. Scarpelli, Lu Shen, Zhen Qu, Melissa P. Sulprizio, Hannah Nesser, A. Anthony Bloom, Shuang Ma, John R. Worden, Shaojia Fan, Robert J. Parker, Hartmut Boesch, Ritesh Gautam, Deborah Gordon, Michael D. Moran, Frances Reuland, Claudia A. Octaviano Villasana, and Arlyn Andrews
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 395–418, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-395-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-395-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
We evaluate methane emissions and trends for 2010–2017 in the gridded national emission inventories for the United States, Canada, and Mexico by inversion of in situ and satellite methane observations. We find that anthropogenic methane emissions for all three countries are underestimated in the national inventories, largely driven by oil emissions. Anthropogenic methane emissions in the US peak in 2014, in contrast to the report of a steadily decreasing trend over 2010–2017 from the US EPA.
Eric J. Hintsa, Fred L. Moore, Dale F. Hurst, Geoff S. Dutton, Bradley D. Hall, J. David Nance, Ben R. Miller, Stephen A. Montzka, Laura P. Wolton, Audra McClure-Begley, James W. Elkins, Emrys G. Hall, Allen F. Jordan, Andrew W. Rollins, Troy D. Thornberry, Laurel A. Watts, Chelsea R. Thompson, Jeff Peischl, Ilann Bourgeois, Thomas B. Ryerson, Bruce C. Daube, Yenny Gonzalez Ramos, Roisin Commane, Gregory W. Santoni, Jasna V. Pittman, Steven C. Wofsy, Eric Kort, Glenn S. Diskin, and T. Paul Bui
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 6795–6819, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-6795-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-6795-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
We built UCATS to study atmospheric chemistry and transport. It has measured trace gases including CFCs, N2O, SF6, CH4, CO, and H2 with gas chromatography, as well as ozone and water vapor. UCATS has been part of missions to study the tropical tropopause; transport of air into the stratosphere; greenhouse gases, transport, and chemistry in the troposphere; and ozone chemistry, on both piloted and unmanned aircraft. Its design, capabilities, and some results are shown and described here.
Charles A. Brock, Karl D. Froyd, Maximilian Dollner, Christina J. Williamson, Gregory Schill, Daniel M. Murphy, Nicholas J. Wagner, Agnieszka Kupc, Jose L. Jimenez, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, Benjamin A. Nault, Jason C. Schroder, Douglas A. Day, Derek J. Price, Bernadett Weinzierl, Joshua P. Schwarz, Joseph M. Katich, Siyuan Wang, Linghan Zeng, Rodney Weber, Jack Dibb, Eric Scheuer, Glenn S. Diskin, Joshua P. DiGangi, ThaoPaul Bui, Jonathan M. Dean-Day, Chelsea R. Thompson, Jeff Peischl, Thomas B. Ryerson, Ilann Bourgeois, Bruce C. Daube, Róisín Commane, and Steven C. Wofsy
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 15023–15063, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-15023-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-15023-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
The Atmospheric Tomography Mission was an airborne study that mapped the chemical composition of the remote atmosphere. From this, we developed a comprehensive description of aerosol properties that provides a unique, global-scale dataset against which models can be compared. The data show the polluted nature of the remote atmosphere in the Northern Hemisphere and quantify the contributions of sea salt, dust, soot, biomass burning particles, and pollution particles to the haziness of the sky.
Mahesh Kumar Sha, Bavo Langerock, Jean-François L. Blavier, Thomas Blumenstock, Tobias Borsdorff, Matthias Buschmann, Angelika Dehn, Martine De Mazière, Nicholas M. Deutscher, Dietrich G. Feist, Omaira E. García, David W. T. Griffith, Michel Grutter, James W. Hannigan, Frank Hase, Pauli Heikkinen, Christian Hermans, Laura T. Iraci, Pascal Jeseck, Nicholas Jones, Rigel Kivi, Nicolas Kumps, Jochen Landgraf, Alba Lorente, Emmanuel Mahieu, Maria V. Makarova, Johan Mellqvist, Jean-Marc Metzger, Isamu Morino, Tomoo Nagahama, Justus Notholt, Hirofumi Ohyama, Ivan Ortega, Mathias Palm, Christof Petri, David F. Pollard, Markus Rettinger, John Robinson, Sébastien Roche, Coleen M. Roehl, Amelie N. Röhling, Constantina Rousogenous, Matthias Schneider, Kei Shiomi, Dan Smale, Wolfgang Stremme, Kimberly Strong, Ralf Sussmann, Yao Té, Osamu Uchino, Voltaire A. Velazco, Corinne Vigouroux, Mihalis Vrekoussis, Pucai Wang, Thorsten Warneke, Tyler Wizenberg, Debra Wunch, Shoma Yamanouchi, Yang Yang, and Minqiang Zhou
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 6249–6304, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-6249-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-6249-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
This paper presents, for the first time, Sentinel-5 Precursor methane and carbon monoxide validation results covering a period from November 2017 to September 2020. For this study, we used global TCCON and NDACC-IRWG network data covering a wide range of atmospheric and surface conditions across different terrains. We also show the influence of a priori alignment, smoothing uncertainties and the sensitivity of the validation results towards the application of advanced co-location criteria.
Hao Guo, Clare M. Flynn, Michael J. Prather, Sarah A. Strode, Stephen D. Steenrod, Louisa Emmons, Forrest Lacey, Jean-Francois Lamarque, Arlene M. Fiore, Gus Correa, Lee T. Murray, Glenn M. Wolfe, Jason M. St. Clair, Michelle Kim, John Crounse, Glenn Diskin, Joshua DiGangi, Bruce C. Daube, Roisin Commane, Kathryn McKain, Jeff Peischl, Thomas B. Ryerson, Chelsea Thompson, Thomas F. Hanisco, Donald Blake, Nicola J. Blake, Eric C. Apel, Rebecca S. Hornbrook, James W. Elkins, Eric J. Hintsa, Fred L. Moore, and Steven Wofsy
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 13729–13746, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-13729-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-13729-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
The NASA Atmospheric Tomography (ATom) mission built a climatology of the chemical composition of tropospheric air parcels throughout the middle of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. The level of detail allows us to reconstruct the photochemical budgets of O3 and CH4 over these vast, remote regions. We find that most of the chemical heterogeneity is captured at the resolution used in current global chemistry models and that the majority of reactivity occurs in the
hottest20 % of parcels.
Taylor S. Jones, Jonathan E. Franklin, Jia Chen, Florian Dietrich, Kristian D. Hajny, Johannes C. Paetzold, Adrian Wenzel, Conor Gately, Elaine Gottlieb, Harrison Parker, Manvendra Dubey, Frank Hase, Paul B. Shepson, Levi H. Mielke, and Steven C. Wofsy
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 13131–13147, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-13131-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-13131-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
Methane emissions from leaks in natural gas pipes are often a large source in urban areas, but they are difficult to measure on a city-wide scale. Here we use an array of innovative methane sensors distributed around the city of Indianapolis and a new method of combining their data with an atmospheric model to accurately determine the magnitude of these emissions, which are about 70 % larger than predicted. This method can serve as a framework for cities trying to account for their emissions.
Yenny Gonzalez, Róisín Commane, Ethan Manninen, Bruce C. Daube, Luke D. Schiferl, J. Barry McManus, Kathryn McKain, Eric J. Hintsa, James W. Elkins, Stephen A. Montzka, Colm Sweeney, Fred Moore, Jose L. Jimenez, Pedro Campuzano Jost, Thomas B. Ryerson, Ilann Bourgeois, Jeff Peischl, Chelsea R. Thompson, Eric Ray, Paul O. Wennberg, John Crounse, Michelle Kim, Hannah M. Allen, Paul A. Newman, Britton B. Stephens, Eric C. Apel, Rebecca S. Hornbrook, Benjamin A. Nault, Eric Morgan, and Steven C. Wofsy
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 11113–11132, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-11113-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-11113-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
Vertical profiles of N2O and a variety of chemical species and aerosols were collected nearly from pole to pole over the oceans during the NASA Atmospheric Tomography mission. We observed that tropospheric N2O variability is strongly driven by the influence of stratospheric air depleted in N2O, especially at middle and high latitudes. We also traced the origins of biomass burning and industrial emissions and investigated their impact on the variability of tropospheric N2O.
Carly Staebell, Kang Sun, Jenna Samra, Jonathan Franklin, Christopher Chan Miller, Xiong Liu, Eamon Conway, Kelly Chance, Scott Milligan, and Steven Wofsy
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 3737–3753, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-3737-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-3737-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
Given the high global warming potential of CH4, the identification and subsequent reduction of anthropogenic CH4 emissions presents a significant opportunity for climate change mitigation. Satellites are an integral piece of this puzzle, providing data to quantify emissions at a variety of spatial scales. This work presents the spectral calibration of MethaneAIR, the airborne instrument used as a test bed for the forthcoming MethaneSAT satellite.
Cited articles
Alipour, M.: Petroleum systems of the Iranian Zagros Fold and Thrust Belt, Results in Earth Sciences, 2, 100027, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rines.2024.100027, 2024.
Alvarez, R. A., Zavala-Araiza, D., Lyon, D. R., Allen, D. T., Barkley, Z. R., Brandt, A. R., Davis, K. J., Herndon, S. C., Jacob, D. J., Karion, A., Kort, E. A., Lamb, B. K., Lauvaux, T., Maasakkers, J. D., Marchese, A. J., Omara, M., Pacala, S. W., Peischl, J., Robinson, A. L., Shepson, P. B., Sweeney, C., Townsend-Small, A., Wofsy, S. C., and Hamburg, S. P.: Assessment of methane emissions from the U. S. oil and gas supply chain, Science, 361, 186–188, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aar7204, 2018.
Barkley, Z., Davis, K., Miles, N., Richardson, S., Deng, A., Hmiel, B., Lyon, D., and Lauvaux, T.: Quantification of oil and gas methane emissions in the Delaware and Marcellus basins using a network of continuous tower-based measurements, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 6127–6144, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-6127-2023, 2023.
Barrowman, S., Yurco, K., Sumner, D., and Cooper, M. H.: More milk, fewer farms, and regional concentration: Mapping transformations in California's dairy industry, Geogr. Rev., 115, 49–80, https://doi.org/10.1080/00167428.2024.2391832, 2025.
Bloom, A. A., Bowman, K. W., Lee, M., Turner, A. J., Schroeder, R., Worden, J. R., Weidner, R., McDonald, K. C., and Jacob, D. J.: A global wetland methane emissions and uncertainty dataset for atmospheric chemical transport models (WetCHARTs version 1.0), Geosci. Model Dev., 10, 2141–2156, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-10-2141-2017, 2017.
Burdeau, P. M., Sherwin, E. D., Biraud, S. C., Berman, E. S. F., and Brandt, A. R.: High-resolution national mapping of natural gas composition substantially updates methane leakage impacts, Nat. Commun., 16, 11297, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-66465-6, 2025.
Carpenter, B., Gelman, A., Hoffman, M. D., Lee, D., Goodrich, B., Betancourt, M., Brubaker, M., Guo, J., Li, P., and Riddell, A.: Stan: A Probabilistic Programming Language, J. Stat, Softw., 76, 1–32, https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v076.i01, 2017.
Chan Miller, C., Roche, S., Wilzewski, J. S., Liu, X., Chance, K., Souri, A. H., Conway, E., Luo, B., Samra, J., Hawthorne, J., Sun, K., Staebell, C., Chulakadabba, A., Sargent, M., Benmergui, J. S., Franklin, J. E., Daube, B. C., Li, Y., Laughner, J. L., Baier, B. C., Gautam, R., Omara, M., and Wofsy, S. C.: Methane retrieval from MethaneAIR using the CO2 proxy approach: a demonstration for the upcoming MethaneSAT mission, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 5429–5454, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5429-2024, 2024.
Chen, Y., Sherwin, E. D., Berman, E. S. F., Jones, B. B., Gordon, M. P., Wetherley, E. B., Kort, E. A., and Brandt, A. R.: Quantifying Regional Methane Emissions in the New Mexico Permian Basin with a Comprehensive Aerial Survey, Environ. Sci. Technol., 56, 4317–4323, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.1c06458, 2022.
Chen, Z., Jacob, D. J., Gautam, R., Omara, M., Stavins, R. N., Stowe, R. C., Nesser, H., Sulprizio, M. P., Lorente, A., Varon, D. J., Lu, X., Shen, L., Qu, Z., Pendergrass, D. C., and Hancock, S.: Satellite quantification of methane emissions and oil–gas methane intensities from individual countries in the Middle East and North Africa: implications for climate action, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 5945–5967, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-5945-2023, 2023.
Crippa, M., Guizzardi, D., Pagani, F., Schiavina, M., Melchiorri, M., Pisoni, E., Graziosi, F., Muntean, M., Maes, J., Dijkstra, L., Van Damme, M., Clarisse, L., and Coheur, P.: Insights into the spatial distribution of global, national, and subnational greenhouse gas emissions in the Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR v8.0), Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 2811–2830, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-2811-2024, 2024.
Cui, Y. Y., Brioude, J., Angevine, W. M., Peischl, J., McKeen, S. A., Kim, S.-W., Neuman, J. A., Henze, D. K., Bousserez, N., Fischer, M. L., Jeong, S., Michelsen, H. A., Bambha, R. P., Liu, Z., Santoni, G. W., Daube, B. C., Kort, E. A., Frost, G. J., Ryerson, T. B., Wofsy, S. C., and Trainer, M.: Top-down estimate of methane emissions in California using a mesoscale inverse modeling technique: The San Joaquin Valley, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 122, 3686–3699, https://doi.org/10.1002/2016JD026398, 2017.
Cusworth, D. H., Bloom, A. A., Ma, S., Miller, C. E., Bowman, K., Yin, Y., Maasakkers, J. D., Zhang, Y., Scarpelli, T. R., Qu, Z., Jacob, D. J., and Worden, J. R.: A Bayesian framework for deriving sector-based methane emissions from top-down fluxes, Commun. Earth Environ., 2, 242, https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-021-00312-6, 2021a.
Cusworth, D. H., Duren, R. M., Thorpe, A. K., Olson-Duvall, W., Heckler, J., Chapman, J. W., Eastwood, M. L., Helmlinger, M. C., Green, R. O., Asner, G. P., Dennison, P. E., and Miller, C. E.: Intermittency of Large Methane Emitters in the Permian Basin, Environ. Sci. Tech. Let., 8, 567–573, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.estlett.1c00173, 2021b.
Cusworth, D. H., Thorpe, A. K., Ayasse, A. K., Stepp, D., Heckler, J., Asner, G. P., Miller, C. E., Yadav, V., Chapman, J. W., Eastwood, M. L., Green, R. O., Hmiel, B., Lyon, D. R., and Duren, R. M.: Strong methane point sources contribute a disproportionate fraction of total emissions across multiple basins in the United States, P. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 119, e2202338119, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2202338119, 2022.
Carbon Mapper: Carbon Mapper Data Portal, https://data.carbonmapper.org/#1.3/30.8/50.5 (last access: 3 December 2025), 2025.
Dávila-Pulido, G. I., González-Ibarra, A. A., and Garza-García, M.: A brief review on coal reserves, production and possible non-power uses: The case of Mexico, Heliyon, 9, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e16043, 2023.
Duren, R., Cusworth, D., Ayasse, A., Howell, K., Diamond, A., Scarpelli, T., Kim, J., O'neill, K., Lai-Norling, J., Thorpe, A., Zandbergen, S. R., Shaw, L., Keremedjiev, M., Guido, J., Giuliano, P., Goldstein, M., Nallapu, R., Barentsen, G., Thompson, D. R., Roth, K., Jensen, D., Eastwood, M., Reuland, F., Adams, T., Brandt, A., Kort, E. A., Mason, J., and Green, R. O.: The Carbon Mapper emissions monitoring system, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 6933–6958, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-6933-2025, 2025.
Duren, R. M., Thorpe, A. K., Foster, K. T., Rafiq, T., Hopkins, F. M., Yadav, V., Bue, B. D., Thompson, D. R., Conley, S., Colombi, N. K., Frankenberg, C., McCubbin, I. B., Eastwood, M. L., Falk, M., Herner, J. D., Croes, B. E., Green, R. O., and Miller, C. E.: California's methane super-emitters, Nature, 575, 180–184, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1720-3, 2019.
East, J. D., Jacob, D. J., Jervis, D., Balasus, N., Estrada, L. A., Hancock, S. E., Sulprizio, M. P., Thomas, J., Wang, X., Chen, Z., Varon, D. J., and Worden, J. R.: Worldwide inference of national methane emissions by inversion of satellite observations with UNFCCC prior estimates, Nat. Commun., 16, 11004, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-67122-8, 2025.
EDF Data Story: https://www.edf.org/methanesat-observations-reveal-lower-methane-intensity-new-mexicos-permian-basin-associated, last access: 5 December 2025.
Fasoli, B., Lin, J. C., Bowling, D. R., Mitchell, L., and Mendoza, D.: Simulating atmospheric tracer concentrations for spatially distributed receptors: updates to the Stochastic Time-Inverted Lagrangian Transport model's R interface (STILT-R version 2), Geosci. Model Dev., 11, 2813–2824, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-11-2813-2018, 2018.
Granier, C., Darras, S., Denier van Der Gon, H., Jana, D., Elguindi, N., Bo, G., Michael, G., Marc, G., Jalkanen, J.-P., Kuenen, J., Liousse, C., Quack, B., Simpson, D., and Sindelarova, K.: The Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service global and regional emissions (April 2019 version), Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service, https://doi.org/10.24380/d0bn-kx16, 2019.
Guanter, L., Roger, J., Warren, J., Sargent, M., Zhang, Z., Roche, S., Miller, C. C., Steiner, M., Hadfield, H., Omara, M., Williams, J., MacKay, K., Franklin, J. E., Luo, B., Wofsy, S. C., Hamburg, S. P., and Gautam, R.: Surveying methane point-source super-emissions across oil and gas basins with MethaneSAT, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 26, 2941–2963, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-2941-2026, 2026.
Heerah, S., Frausto-Vicencio, I., Jeong, S., Marklein, A. R., Ding, Y., Meyer, A. G., Parker, H. A., Fischer, M. L., Franklin, J. E., Hopkins, F. M., and Dubey, M.: Dairy Methane Emissions in California's San Joaquin Valley Inferred With Ground-Based Remote Sensing Observations in the Summer and Winter, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 126, e2021JD034785, https://doi.org/10.1029/2021JD034785, 2021.
Hmiel, B., Lyon, D. R., Warren, J. D., Yu, J., Cusworth, D. H., Duren, R. M., and Hamburg, S. P.: Empirical quantification of methane emission intensity from oil and gas producers in the Permian basin, Environ. Res. Lett., 18, 024029, https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/acb27e, 2023.
Hoffman, M. D. and Gelman, A.: The No-U-Turn Sampler: Adaptively Setting Path Lengths in Hamiltonian Monte Carlo, arXiv [preprint], https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.1111.4246, 18 November 2011.
IEA – International Energy Agency: Global Methane Tracker 2022, IEA, Paris, https://www.iea.org/reports/global-methane-tracker-2022 (last access: 30 September 2025), 2022.
IEA – International Energy Agency: IEA – Iraq, https://www.iea.org/countries/iraq (last access: 30 September 2025), 2025a.
IEA – International Energy Agency: IEA – Uzbekistan, https://www.iea.org/countries/uzbekistan/oil (last access: 30 September 2025), 2025b.
Irakulis-Loitxate, I., Guanter, L., Liu, Y.-N., Varon, D. J., Maasakkers, J. D., Zhang, Y., Chulakadabba, A., Wofsy, S. C., Thorpe, A. K., Duren, R. M., Frankenberg, C., Lyon, D. R., Hmiel, B., Cusworth, D. H., Zhang, Y., Segl, K., Gorroño, J., Sánchez-García, E., Sulprizio, M. P., Cao, K., Zhu, H., Liang, J., Li, X., Aben, I., and Jacob, D. J.: Satellite-based survey of extreme methane emissions in the Permian basin, Science Advances, 7, eabf4507, https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abf4507, 2021.
Jacob, D. J., Varon, D. J., Cusworth, D. H., Dennison, P. E., Frankenberg, C., Gautam, R., Guanter, L., Kelley, J., McKeever, J., Ott, L. E., Poulter, B., Qu, Z., Thorpe, A. K., Worden, J. R., and Duren, R. M.: Quantifying methane emissions from the global scale down to point sources using satellite observations of atmospheric methane, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 9617–9646, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-9617-2022, 2022.
Jervis, D., McKeever, J., Durak, B. O. A., Sloan, J. J., Gains, D., Varon, D. J., Ramier, A., Strupler, M., and Tarrant, E.: The GHGSat-D imaging spectrometer, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 2127–2140, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-2127-2021, 2021.
Johnson, M. R., Conrad, B. M., Zimmerle, D. J., and Kleinberg, R. L.: Methane by the Numbers: The Need for Clear and Comparable Methane Intensity Metrics, Environ. Sci. Technol., https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.5c13990, 2026.
Lin, J. C., Gerbig, C., Wofsy, S. C., Andrews, A. E., Daube, B. C., Davis, K. J., and Grainger, C. A.: A near-field tool for simulating the upstream influence of atmospheric observations: The Stochastic Time-Inverted Lagrangian Transport (STILT) model, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 108, https://doi.org/10.1029/2002JD003161, 2003.
Lu, X., Jacob, D. J., Zhang, Y., Maasakkers, J. D., Sulprizio, M. P., Shen, L., Qu, Z., Scarpelli, T. R., Nesser, H., Yantosca, R. M., Sheng, J., Andrews, A., Parker, R. J., Boesch, H., Bloom, A. A., and Ma, S.: Global methane budget and trend, 2010–2017: complementarity of inverse analyses using in situ (GLOBALVIEWplus CH4 ObsPack) and satellite (GOSAT) observations, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 4637–4657, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-4637-2021, 2021.
Lu, X., Jacob, D. J., Wang, H., Maasakkers, J. D., Zhang, Y., Scarpelli, T. R., Shen, L., Qu, Z., Sulprizio, M. P., Nesser, H., Bloom, A. A., Ma, S., Worden, J. R., Fan, S., Parker, R. J., Boesch, H., Gautam, R., Gordon, D., Moran, M. D., Reuland, F., Villasana, C. A. O., and Andrews, A.: Methane emissions in the United States, Canada, and Mexico: evaluation of national methane emission inventories and 2010–2017 sectoral trends by inverse analysis of in situ (GLOBALVIEWplus CH4 ObsPack) and satellite (GOSAT) atmospheric observations, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 395–418, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-395-2022, 2022.
Lu, X., Jacob, D. J., Zhang, Y., Shen, L., Sulprizio, M. P., Maasakkers, J. D., Varon, D. J., Qu, Z., Chen, Z., Hmiel, B., Parker, R. J., Boesch, H., Wang, H., He, C., and Fan, S.: Observation-derived 2010–2019 trends in methane emissions and intensities from US oil and gas fields tied to activity metrics, P. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 120, e2217900120, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2217900120, 2023.
Maasakkers, J. D., Jacob, D. J., Sulprizio, M. P., Scarpelli, T. R., Nesser, H., Sheng, J.-X., Zhang, Y., Hersher, M., Bloom, A. A., Bowman, K. W., Worden, J. R., Janssens-Maenhout, G., and Parker, R. J.: Global distribution of methane emissions, emission trends, and OH concentrations and trends inferred from an inversion of GOSAT satellite data for 2010–2015, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 7859–7881, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-7859-2019, 2019.
Maasakkers, J. D., McDuffie, E. E., Sulprizio, M. P., Chen, C., Schultz, M., Brunelle, L., Thrush, R., Steller, J., Sherry, C., Jacob, D. J., Jeong, S., Irving, B., and Weitz, M.: A Gridded Inventory of Annual 2012–2018 U. S. Anthropogenic Methane Emissions, Environ. Sci. Technol., 57, 16276–16288, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.3c05138, 2023.
MacKay, K., Benmergui, J., Williams, J. P., Omara, M., Himmelberger, A., Sargent, M., Warren, J. D., Miller, C. C., Roche, S., Zhang, Z., Franklin, J., Guanter, L., Wofsy, S., and Gautam, R.: Assessment of methane emissions from US onshore oil and gas production using MethaneAIR measurements, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 26, 1179–1192, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-1179-2026, 2026.
Marklein, A. R., Meyer, D., Fischer, M. L., Jeong, S., Rafiq, T., Carr, M., and Hopkins, F. M.: Facility-scale inventory of dairy methane emissions in California: implications for mitigation, Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 1151–1166, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-1151-2021, 2021.
Miller, D. J., Sun, K., Tao, L., Pan, D., Zondlo, M. A., Nowak, J. B., Liu, Z., Diskin, G., Sachse, G., Beyersdorf, A., Ferrare, R., and Scarino, A. J.: Ammonia and methane dairy emission plumes in the San Joaquin Valley of California from individual feedlot to regional scales, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 120, 9718–9738, https://doi.org/10.1002/2015JD023241, 2015.
Neal, R. M.: MCMC using Hamiltonian dynamics, in: Handbook of markov chain monte carlo, Chapman and Hall/CRC, 47–95, https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003453420-2, 2011.
Nesser, H., Jacob, D. J., Maasakkers, J. D., Lorente, A., Chen, Z., Lu, X., Shen, L., Qu, Z., Sulprizio, M. P., Winter, M., Ma, S., Bloom, A. A., Worden, J. R., Stavins, R. N., and Randles, C. A.: High-resolution US methane emissions inferred from an inversion of 2019 TROPOMI satellite data: contributions from individual states, urban areas, and landfills, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 5069–5091, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-5069-2024, 2024.
Nisbet, E. G., Fisher, R. E., Lowry, D., France, J. L., Allen, G., Bakkaloglu, S., Broderick, T. J., Cain, M., Coleman, M., Fernandez, J., Forster, G., Griffiths, P. T., Iverach, C. P., Kelly, B. F. J., Manning, M. R., Nisbet-Jones, P. B. R., Pyle, J. A., Townsend-Small, A., al-Shalaan, A., Warwick, N., and Zazzeri, G.: Methane Mitigation: Methods to Reduce Emissions, on the Path to the Paris Agreement, Rev. Geophys., 58, e2019RG000675, https://doi.org/10.1029/2019RG000675, 2020.
N. M. Code R. § 19.15.27.9: Statewide Natural Gas Capture Requirements, https://regulations.vlex.com/vid/n-m-code-r-955851862 (last access: 3 September 2025), 2025.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration: NOAA Institutional Repository, https://repository.library.noaa.gov (last access: 16 March 2026), 2026.
OGDC: The Oil and Gas Decarbonization Charter, https://www.ogdc.org/ (last access: 5 December 2025), 2025.
OGCI: Oil and Gas Climate Initiative, https://www.ogci.com/ (last access: 30 September 2025), 2025.
Omara, M., Zimmerman, N., Sullivan, M. R., Li, X., Ellis, A., Cesa, R., Subramanian, R., Presto, A. A., and Robinson, A. L.: Methane Emissions from Natural Gas Production Sites in the United States: Data Synthesis and National Estimate, Environ. Sci. Technol., 52, 12915–12925, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.8b03535, 2018.
Omara, M., Zavala-Araiza, D., Lyon, D. R., Hmiel, B., Roberts, K. A., and Hamburg, S. P.: Methane emissions from US low production oil and natural gas well sites, Nat. Commun., 13, 2085, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29709-3, 2022.
Omara, M., Gautam, R., O'Brien, M. A., Himmelberger, A., Franco, A., Meisenhelder, K., Hauser, G., Lyon, D. R., Chulakadabba, A., Miller, C. C., Franklin, J., Wofsy, S. C., and Hamburg, S. P.: Developing a spatially explicit global oil and gas infrastructure database for characterizing methane emission sources at high resolution, Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 3761–3790, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-3761-2023, 2023.
Omara, M., Himmelberger, A., MacKay, K., Williams, J. P., Benmergui, J., Sargent, M., Wofsy, S. C., and Gautam, R.: Constructing a measurement-based spatially explicit inventory of US oil and gas methane emissions (2021), Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 3973–3991, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-3973-2024, 2024.
Pendergrass, D. C., Jacob, D. J., Balasus, N., Estrada, L., Varon, D. J., East, J. D., He, M., Mooring, T. A., Penn, E., Nesser, H., and Worden, J. R.: Trends and seasonality of 2019–2023 global methane emissions inferred from a localized ensemble transform Kalman filter (CHEEREIO v1.3.1) applied to TROPOMI satellite observations, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 14353–14369, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-14353-2025, 2025.
PermianMAP: Permian Methane Analysis Project, https://data.permianmap.org/pages/operators (last access: 1 September 2025), 2025.
Qu, Z., Jacob, D. J., Shen, L., Lu, X., Zhang, Y., Scarpelli, T. R., Nesser, H., Sulprizio, M. P., Maasakkers, J. D., Bloom, A. A., Worden, J. R., Parker, R. J., and Delgado, A. L.: Global distribution of methane emissions: a comparative inverse analysis of observations from the TROPOMI and GOSAT satellite instruments, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 14159–14175, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-14159-2021, 2021.
Robertson, A. M., Edie, R., Field, R. A., Lyon, D., McVay, R., Omara, M., Zavala-Araiza, D., and Murphy, S. M.: New Mexico Permian Basin Measured Well Pad Methane Emissions Are a Factor of 5–9 Times Higher Than U. S. EPA Estimates, Environ. Sci. Technol., 54, 13926–13934, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.0c02927, 2020.
Saunois, M., Martinez, A., Poulter, B., Zhang, Z., Raymond, P. A., Regnier, P., Canadell, J. G., Jackson, R. B., Patra, P. K., Bousquet, P., Ciais, P., Dlugokencky, E. J., Lan, X., Allen, G. H., Bastviken, D., Beerling, D. J., Belikov, D. A., Blake, D. R., Castaldi, S., Crippa, M., Deemer, B. R., Dennison, F., Etiope, G., Gedney, N., Höglund-Isaksson, L., Holgerson, M. A., Hopcroft, P. O., Hugelius, G., Ito, A., Jain, A. K., Janardanan, R., Johnson, M. S., Kleinen, T., Krummel, P. B., Lauerwald, R., Li, T., Liu, X., McDonald, K. C., Melton, J. R., Mühle, J., Müller, J., Murguia-Flores, F., Niwa, Y., Noce, S., Pan, S., Parker, R. J., Peng, C., Ramonet, M., Riley, W. J., Rocher-Ros, G., Rosentreter, J. A., Sasakawa, M., Segers, A., Smith, S. J., Stanley, E. H., Thanwerdas, J., Tian, H., Tsuruta, A., Tubiello, F. N., Weber, T. S., van der Werf, G. R., Worthy, D. E. J., Xi, Y., Yoshida, Y., Zhang, W., Zheng, B., Zhu, Q., Zhu, Q., and Zhuang, Q.: Global Methane Budget 2000–2020, Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 17, 1873–1958, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-1873-2025, 2025.
Scanlon, B. R., Reedy, R. C., Male, F., and Walsh, M.: Water Issues Related to Transitioning from Conventional to Unconventional Oil Production in the Permian Basin, Environ. Sci. Technol., 51, 10903–10912, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.7b02185, 2017.
Scarpelli, T. R., Jacob, D. J., Grossman, S., Lu, X., Qu, Z., Sulprizio, M. P., Zhang, Y., Reuland, F., Gordon, D., and Worden, J. R.: Updated Global Fuel Exploitation Inventory (GFEI) for methane emissions from the oil, gas, and coal sectors: evaluation with inversions of atmospheric methane observations, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 3235–3249, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-3235-2022, 2022.
Schuit, B. J., Maasakkers, J. D., Bijl, P., Mahapatra, G., van den Berg, A.-W., Pandey, S., Lorente, A., Borsdorff, T., Houweling, S., Varon, D. J., McKeever, J., Jervis, D., Girard, M., Irakulis-Loitxate, I., Gorroño, J., Guanter, L., Cusworth, D. H., and Aben, I.: Automated detection and monitoring of methane super-emitters using satellite data, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 9071–9098, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-9071-2023, 2023.
Schulze, B. C., Ward, R. X., Pfannerstill, E. Y., Zhu, Q., Arata, C., Place, B., Nussbaumer, C., Wooldridge, P., Woods, R., Bucholtz, A., Cohen, R. C., Goldstein, A. H., Wennberg, P. O., and Seinfeld, J. H.: Methane Emissions from Dairy Operations in California's San Joaquin Valley Evaluated Using Airborne Flux Measurements, Environ. Sci. Technol., 57, 19519–19531, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.3c03940, 2023.
Seymour, S., Xie, D., Kang, M., Schwietzke, S., Zavala-Araiza, D., and Hamburg, S.: Methane emission intensity metrics: unmasking the trade-offs, Research Square, https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6753363/v1, 2025.
Shen, L., Gautam, R., Omara, M., Zavala-Araiza, D., Maasakkers, J. D., Scarpelli, T. R., Lorente, A., Lyon, D., Sheng, J., Varon, D. J., Nesser, H., Qu, Z., Lu, X., Sulprizio, M. P., Hamburg, S. P., and Jacob, D. J.: Satellite quantification of oil and natural gas methane emissions in the US and Canada including contributions from individual basins, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 11203–11215, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-11203-2022, 2022.
Shen, L., Jacob, D. J., Gautam, R., Omara, M., Scarpelli, T. R., Lorente, A., Zavala-Araiza, D., Lu, X., Chen, Z., and Lin, J.: National quantifications of methane emissions from fuel exploitation using high resolution inversions of satellite observations, Nat. Commun., 14, 4948, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-40671-6, 2023.
Sherwin, E. D., Rutherford, J. S., Zhang, Z., Chen, Y., Wetherley, E. B., Yakovlev, P. V., Berman, E. S. F., Jones, B. B., Cusworth, D. H., Thorpe, A. K., Ayasse, A. K., Duren, R. M., and Brandt, A. R.: US oil and gas system emissions from nearly one million aerial site measurements, Nature, 627, 328–334, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07117-5, 2024.
The MethaneSAT Science and Engineering Team: MethaneSAT Level-4 Dispersed Emissions Product: Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document v1.1, Zenodo, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19873046, 2026.
UNFCCC – United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change: UNFCCC – Detailed data by party, https://di.unfccc.int/detailed_data_by_party (last access: 3 September 2025), 2025.
Varon, D. J., Jervis, D., McKeever, J., Spence, I., Gains, D., and Jacob, D. J.: High-frequency monitoring of anomalous methane point sources with multispectral Sentinel-2 satellite observations, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 2771–2785, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-2771-2021, 2021.
Varon, D. J., Jacob, D. J., Hmiel, B., Gautam, R., Lyon, D. R., Omara, M., Sulprizio, M., Shen, L., Pendergrass, D., Nesser, H., Qu, Z., Barkley, Z. R., Miles, N. L., Richardson, S. J., Davis, K. J., Pandey, S., Lu, X., Lorente, A., Borsdorff, T., Maasakkers, J. D., and Aben, I.: Continuous weekly monitoring of methane emissions from the Permian Basin by inversion of TROPOMI satellite observations, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 7503–7520, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-7503-2023, 2023.
Varon, D. J., Jacob, D. J., Estrada, L. A., Balasus, N., East, J. D., Pendergrass, D. C., Chen, Z., Sulprizio, M., Omara, M., Gautam, R., Barkley, Z. R., Saldaña, F. J. C., Reidy, E. K., Kamdar, H., Sherwin, E. D., Biraud, S. C., Jervis, D., Pandey, S., Worden, J. R., Bowman, K. W., Maasakkers, J. D., and Kleinberg, R. L.: Seasonality and Declining Intensity of Methane Emissions from the Permian and Nearby US Oil and Gas Basins, Environ. Sci. Technol., 60, 425–435, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.5c08745, 2026.
Vechi, N. T., Mellqvist, J., Samuelsson, J., Offerle, B., and Scheutz, C.: Ammonia and methane emissions from dairy concentrated animal feeding operations in California, using mobile optical remote sensing, Atmos. Environ., 293, 119448, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2022.119448, 2023.
Veefkind, J. P., Aben, I., McMullan, K., Förster, H., de Vries, J., Otter, G., Claas, J., Eskes, H. J., de Haan, J. F., Kleipool, Q., van Weele, M., Hasekamp, O., Hoogeveen, R., Landgraf, J., Snel, R., Tol, P., Ingmann, P., Voors, R., Kruizinga, B., Vink, R., Visser, H., and Levelt, P. F.: TROPOMI on the ESA Sentinel-5 Precursor: A GMES mission for global observations of the atmospheric composition for climate, air quality and ozone layer applications, Remote Sens. Environ., 120, 70–83, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2011.09.027, 2012.
Veefkind, J. P., Serrano-Calvo, R., de Gouw, J., Dix, B., Schneising, O., Buchwitz, M., Barré, J., van der A, R. J., Liu, M., and Levelt, P. F.: Widespread Frequent Methane Emissions From the Oil and Gas Industry in the Permian Basin, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 128, e2022JD037479, https://doi.org/10.1029/2022JD037479, 2023.
Warren, J. D., Sargent, M., Williams, J. P., Omara, M., Miller, C. C., Roche, S., MacKay, K., Manninen, E., Chulakadabba, A., Himmelberger, A., Benmergui, J., Zhang, Z., Guanter, L., Wofsy, S., and Gautam, R.: Sectoral contributions of high-emitting methane point sources from major US onshore oil and gas producing basins using airborne measurements from MethaneAIR, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 10661–10675, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-10661-2025, 2025.
Western, L. M., Ramsden, A. E., Ganesan, A. L., Boesch, H., Parker, R. J., Scarpelli, T. R., Tunnicliffe, R. L., and Rigby, M.: Estimates of North African Methane Emissions from 2010 to 2017 Using GOSAT Observations, Environ. Sci. Tech. Let., 8, 626–632, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.estlett.1c00327, 2021.
Wood Mackenzie: Wood Mackenzie Lens, https://www.woodmac.com/lens (last access: 19 November 2025), 2025.
Worden, J. R., Cusworth, D. H., Qu, Z., Yin, Y., Zhang, Y., Bloom, A. A., Ma, S., Byrne, B. K., Scarpelli, T., Maasakkers, J. D., Crisp, D., Duren, R., and Jacob, D. J.: The 2019 methane budget and uncertainties at 1° resolution and each country through Bayesian integration Of GOSAT total column methane data and a priori inventory estimates, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 6811–6841, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-6811-2022, 2022.
Yu, J., Hmiel, B., Lyon, D. R., Warren, J., Cusworth, D. H., Duren, R. M., Chen, Y., Murphy, E. C., and Brandt, A. R.: Methane Emissions from Natural Gas Gathering Pipelines in the Permian Basin, Environ. Sci. Tech. Let., 9, 969–974, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.estlett.2c00380, 2022.
Yu, Y., Yin, J., Zheng, J., Li, F., Tao, C., Xu, X., and Wu, H.: Division and resources evaluation of hydrocarbon plays in the Amu Darya basin, central Asia, Petrol. Explor. Dev.+, 42, 819–826, https://doi.org/10.1016/S1876-3804(15)30078-1, 2015.
Short summary
Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, and satellite observations are critical for reducing emissions. Using 2024–2025 MethaneSAT data, we quantify methane emissions across six major oil and gas basins at high resolution, revealing substantial underestimation at basin, subbasin, and local levels. Our results underscore the need for new, spatially resolved measurements and the continued advancement of remote sensing capabilities to provide more detailed, actionable insights for methane mitigation.
Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, and satellite observations are critical for reducing...
Altmetrics
Final-revised paper
Preprint