Methane – Earth Indicator – NASA Science

Methane Basics

Methane (CH4) is a potent greenhouse gasoline and is the second-largest contributor to Earth’s warming after carbon dioxide (CO2). A molecule of methane traps extra warmth than a molecule of CO2, however methane has a comparatively brief lifespan of seven to 12 years within the environment. CO2 can persist for a whole lot of years or extra.

Methane comes from each pure sources and human actions. An estimated 60% of immediately’s methane emissions are the results of human actions. The largest sources of methane are agriculture, fossil fuels, and decomposing landfill waste. Natural processes account for 40% of methane emissions, with wetlands being the biggest pure supply. (Learn extra concerning the Global Methane Budget.)

The graph reveals methane concentrations within the environment beginning in 1983, as measured by NOAA from a globally-distributed community of air sampling websites. The knowledge is the most recent obtainable and is up to date quarterly to yearly. The second graph extends the report of methane concentrations again to the 12 months 1010, based mostly on ice core samples from Antarctica and Greenland.

The focus of methane within the environment has greater than doubled over the previous 200 years. Scientists estimate that this improve is accountable for 20% to 30% of Earth’s warming because the Industrial Revolution (which started in 1750).

The NASA visualization reveals the advanced patterns of methane emissions across the globe and all through the seasons. It reveals methane emissions in 2018, based mostly on knowledge from satellites, inventories of human actions, and NASA atmospheric fashions.

How Does NASA Track Methane

Although it’s comparatively easy to measure the quantity of methane within the environment, it’s more durable to pinpoint the place it’s coming from. NASA scientists are utilizing a number of strategies to trace methane emissions.

One software that NASA makes use of is the Airborne Visible InfraRed Imaging Spectrometer-Next Generation, or AVIRIS-NG. This instrument, which will get mounted onto analysis planes, measures gentle that’s mirrored off Earth’s floor. Methane absorbs a few of this mirrored gentle. By measuring the precise wavelengths of sunshine which might be absorbed, the AVIRIS-NG instrument can decide the quantity of greenhouse gases current.

NASA added the Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT) instrument to the International Space Station in 2022. Though constructed principally to check mud storms and minerals, researchers found that it could also detect large methane sources.

These plane and satellite tv for pc devices are discovering methane rising from oil and gasoline manufacturing, pipelines, refineries, landfills, and animal agriculture. In some circumstances, these measurements have led to leaks being fastened, together with suburban gasoline leaks and defective tools in oil and gasoline fields.

The Arctic is one area with many pure sources of methane, together with wetlands, lakes, and thawing permafrost. NASA’s Arctic Boreal and Vulnerability Experiment, or ABoVE, has been measuring methane coming from pure sources like thawing permafrost in Alaska and Canada.