Articles | Volume 14, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-2771-2021
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-2771-2021
Research article
 | Highlight paper
 | 
12 Apr 2021
Research article | Highlight paper |  | 12 Apr 2021

High-frequency monitoring of anomalous methane point sources with multispectral Sentinel-2 satellite observations

Daniel J. Varon, Dylan Jervis, Jason McKeever, Ian Spence, David Gains, and Daniel J. Jacob

Related authors

Predicting and correcting the influence of boundary conditions in regional inverse analyses
Hannah Nesser, Kevin W. Bowman, Matthew D. Thill, Daniel J. Varon, Cynthia A. Randles, Ashutosh Tewari, Felipe J. Cardoso-Saldaña, Emily Reidy, Joannes D. Maasakkers, and Daniel J. Jacob
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-2850,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-2850, 2025
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Geoscientific Model Development (GMD).
Short summary
Integrated Methane Inversion (IMI) 2.0: an improved research and stakeholder tool for monitoring total methane emissions with high resolution worldwide using TROPOMI satellite observations
Lucas A. Estrada, Daniel J. Varon, Melissa Sulprizio, Hannah Nesser, Zichong Chen, Nicholas Balasus, Sarah E. Hancock, Megan He, James D. East, Todd A. Mooring, Alexander Oort Alonso, Joannes D. Maasakkers, Ilse Aben, Sabour Baray, Kevin W. Bowman, John R. Worden, Felipe J. Cardoso-Saldaña, Emily Reidy, and Daniel J. Jacob
Geosci. Model Dev., 18, 3311–3330, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-3311-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-3311-2025, 2025
Short summary
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
Drew C. Pendergrass, Daniel J. Jacob, Nicholas Balasus, Lucas Estrada, Daniel J. Varon, James D. East, Megan He, Todd A. Mooring, Elise Penn, Hannah Nesser, and John R. Worden
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1554,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1554, 2025
Short summary
A data-efficient deep transfer learning framework for methane super-emitter detection in oil and gas fields using the Sentinel-2 satellite
Shutao Zhao, Yuzhong Zhang, Shuang Zhao, Xinlu Wang, and Daniel J. Varon
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 4035–4052, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-4035-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-4035-2025, 2025
Short summary
Satellite quantification of methane emissions from South American countries: a high-resolution inversion of TROPOMI and GOSAT observations
Sarah E. Hancock, Daniel J. Jacob, Zichong Chen, Hannah Nesser, Aaron Davitt, Daniel J. Varon, Melissa P. Sulprizio, Nicholas Balasus, Lucas A. Estrada, María Cazorla, Laura Dawidowski, Sebastián Diez, James D. East, Elise Penn, Cynthia A. Randles, John Worden, Ilse Aben, Robert J. Parker, and Joannes D. Maasakkers
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 797–817, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-797-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-797-2025, 2025
Short summary

Cited articles

Anderson, G., Clough, S., Kneizys, F., Chetwynd, J., and Shettle, E.: AFGL atmospheric constituent profiles (0–120 km), Tech. Rep. AFGL-TR-86-0110, Air Force Geophys. Lab., Hanscom Air Force Base, Bedford, Mass., USA, 1986. 
bne IntelliNews: Study shows satellite discovered methane leak at Turkmenistan oil and gas field, available at: https://www.intellinews.com/study-shows-satellite-discovered- methane-leak-at-turkmenistan-oil-and-gas-field-172186/ (last access: 21 November 2020), 2019. 
Brandt, A. R., Heath, G. A., and Cooley, D.: Methane Leaks from Natural Gas Systems Follow Extreme Distributions, Environ. Sci. Technol., 50, 12512–12520, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.6b04303, 2016. 
Clough, S. A., Shephard, M. W., Mlawer, E. J., Delamere, J. S., Iacono, M. J., Cady-Pereira, K., Boukabara, S., and Brown, P. D.: Atmospheric radiative transfer modeling: a summary of the AER codes, J. Quant. Spectrosc. Radiat. Transf., 91, 233–244, 2005. 
Cusworth, D. H., Jacob, D. J., Varon, D. J., Chan Miller, C., Liu, X., Chance, K., Thorpe, A. K., Duren, R. M., Miller, C. E., Thompson, D. R., Frankenberg, C., Guanter, L., and Randles, C. A.: Potential of next-generation imaging spectrometers to detect and quantify methane point sources from space, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 5655–5668, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-5655-2019, 2019. 
Download
Short summary
Satellites can detect methane emissions by measuring sunlight reflected from the Earth's surface and atmosphere. Here we show that the European Space Agency's Sentinel-2 twin satellites can be used to monitor anomalously large methane point sources around the world, with global coverage every 2–5 days and 20 m spatial resolution. We demonstrate this previously unreported capability through high-frequency Sentinel-2 monitoring of two strong methane point sources in Algeria and Turkmenistan.
Share