Strength in numbers: how the different satellite systems used to monitor methane emissions from space have different, yet complementary, capabilities to help the oil and gas industry meet its decarbonisation goals
Jean-Francois Gauthier A *A GHGSat, Montreal, QC, Canada.
The APPEA Journal 62 S112-S116 https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ21080
Accepted: 23 March 2022 Published: 13 May 2022
© 2022 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of APPEA.
Abstract
Satellites are a powerful tool in monitoring methane emissions around the world. In the last 5 years, many new systems have been both announced and deployed, each with different capabilities, and designed for a specific purpose. With an increase in options also comes confusion as to how these systems can and should be used. This paper will examine how these systems complement each other’s strengths and weaknesses to provide actionable insight to the oil and gas industry. The performance parameters of several current and future satellite systems will be presented and compared, supported with recent examples when available. The importance of factors like frequency of revisit, detection threshold, precision, and spatial resolution will be discussed and contrasted with the needs of the oil and gas industry in gaining a more complete understanding of its methane emissions, in providing key information to stakeholders, and in enabling action to mitigate emissions. Results from GHGSat’s second generation of high-resolution satellites displaying measurements of methane plumes at oil and gas facilities around the world will be presented to demonstrate some of the advantages of the technology. These two satellites, GHGSat-C1 and C2 (Iris and Hugo), were launched in September 2020 and January 2021, respectively. Another eight satellites are planned to be launched by mid-2023. Finally, the ability of these systems to work together and complement each other’s capabilities, and some of the analytics tools used to augment the data, will be presented.
Keywords: artificial intelligence, decarbonisation, emissions, greenhouse gases, insight, leak detection and repair (LDAR), methane, satellites, superemitters.
Jean-Francois Gauthier is a Mechanical Engineer and lifelong space geek with over 15 years of experience in the commercial space industry in various capacities at leading space hardware supplier COM DEV including design and test, project management, and sales and marketing. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering from Dalhousie University and an MBA from Wilfrid Laurier University. He is also a graduate of the International Space University’s Summer Session Program (2006). In October 2016, he joined GHGSat to help commercialise the products and services from their breakthrough satellite around the world. In his role as Vice President of Sales and Marketing, he leads the company’s efforts to help the oil and gas industry take on the challenge of addressing climate change, one satellite at a time. |
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