Articles | Volume 26, issue 12
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-8855-2026
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-8855-2026
Research article
 | 
24 Jun 2026
Research article |  | 24 Jun 2026

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

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

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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.
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