Articles | Volume 26, issue 12
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-8855-2026
© 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-26-8855-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Top-down benchmark of US methane inventories reveals regional discrepancies in activity-based estimates
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, United States
Joint Institute for Regional Earth System Science and Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States
Sudhanshu Pandey
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, United States
Hannah Nesser
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, United States
Kevin Bowman
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, United States
Colin Harkins
NOAA Chemical Sciences Laboratory, Boulder, Colorado, United States
Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, United States
Congmeng Lyu
NOAA Chemical Sciences Laboratory, Boulder, Colorado, United States
Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, United States
Joannes D. Maasakkers
SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, Leiden, the Netherlands
Deborah Gordon
Rocky Mountain Institute, Boulder, Colorado, United States
Daniel Jacob
Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
Lucas Estrada
Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
Daniel J. Varon
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
James D. East
Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
Lauren Schmeisser
Rocky Mountain Institute, Boulder, Colorado, United States
North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, United States
Data sets
Evaluation of Methane Emissions Inventory Using Satellite Flux Inversions: Sectoral Attribution J. R. Worden and S. Pandey https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15786798
Interactive computing environment
Evaluation of Methane Emissions Inventory Using Satellite Flux Inversions: Satellite and Inventory Comparison S. Pandey and J. R. Worden https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16921536
Short summary
To support methane reduction, we compared three widely used maps of methane emissions in the United States with estimates derived from a methane-measuring satellite from 2012 to 2020. The satellite indicates higher emissions from oil and gas production and from livestock in several regions, while other sources were harder to pin down. Neither approach shows a clear change over time. The results point to where better measurements can most improve emissions reporting and guide mitigation.
To support methane reduction, we compared three widely used maps of methane emissions in the...
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