After a decade of stable or slightly decreasing global methane concentrations, ground‐based in situ data show that CH4 began increasing again in 2007 and that this increase continued through 2009. So ...far, space‐based retrievals sensitive to the lower troposphere in the time period under consideration have not been available. Here we report a long‐term data set of column‐averaged methane mixing ratios retrieved from spectra of the Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric Cartography (SCIAMACHY) instrument onboard Envisat. The retrieval quality after 2005 was severely affected by degrading detector pixels within the methane 2ν3 absorption band. We identified the most crucial problems in SCIAMACHY detector degradation and overcame the problem by applying a strict pixel mask as well as a new dark current characterization. Even though retrieval precision after the end of 2005 is invariably degraded, consistent methane retrievals from 2003 through 2009 are now possible. Regional time series in the Sahara, Australia, tropical Africa, South America, and Asia show the methane increase in 2007–2009, but we cannot yet draw a firm conclusion concerning the origin of the increase. Tropical Africa even seems to exhibit a negative anomaly in 2006, but an impact from changes in SCIAMACHY detector degradation cannot be excluded yet. Over Assakrem, Algeria, we observed strong similarities between SCIAMACHY measurements and ground‐based data in deseasonalized time series. We further show long‐term SCIAMACHY xCH4 averages at high spatial resolution that provide further insight into methane variations on regional scales. The Red Basin in China exhibits, on average, the highest methane abundance worldwide, while other localized features such as the Sudd wetlands in southern Sudan can also be identified in SCIAMACHY xCH4 averages.
Localized anthropogenic sources of atmospheric CH4 are highly uncertain and temporally variable. Airborne remote measurement is an effective method to detect and quantify these emissions. In a ...campaign context, the science yield can be dramatically increased by real-time retrievals that allow operators to coordinate multiple measurements of the most active areas. This can improve science outcomes for both single- and multiple-platform missions. We describe a case study of the NASA/ESA CO2 and MEthane eXperiment (COMEX) campaign in California during June and August/September 2014. COMEX was a multi-platform campaign to measure CH4 plumes released from anthropogenic sources including oil and gas infrastructure. We discuss principles for real-time spectral signature detection and measurement, and report performance on the NASA Next Generation Airborne Visible Infrared Spectrometer (AVIRIS-NG). AVIRIS-NG successfully detected CH4 plumes in real-time at Gb s−1 data rates, characterizing fugitive releases in concert with other in situ and remote instruments. The teams used these real-time CH4 detections to coordinate measurements across multiple platforms, including airborne in situ, airborne non-imaging remote sensing, and ground-based in situ instruments. To our knowledge this is the first reported use of real-time trace-gas signature detection in an airborne science campaign, and presages many future applications. Post-analysis demonstrates matched filter methods providing noise-equivalent (1σ) detection sensitivity for 1.0 % CH4 column enhancements equal to 141 ppm m.
The Aliso Canyon gas storage facility near Porter Ranch, California, produced a large accidental CH4 release from October 2015 to February 2016. The Hyperion imaging spectrometer on board the EO-1 ...satellite successfully detected this event, achieving the first orbital attribution of CH4 to a single anthropogenic superemitter. Hyperion measured shortwave infrared signatures of CH4 near 2.3 microns at 0.01 micron spectral resolution and 30 meter spatial resolution. It detected the plume on three overpasses, mapping its magnitude and morphology. These orbital observations were consistent with measurements by airborne instruments. We evaluate Hyperion instrument performance, draw implications for future orbital instruments, and extrapolate the potential for a global survey of CH4 superemitters.
The Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2), launched on 2 July 2014, is a NASA mission designed to measure the column-averaged CO2 dry air mole fraction, XCO2. Towards that goal, it will collect ...spectra of reflected sunlight in narrow spectral ranges centered at 0.76, 1.6 and 2.0 μm with a resolving power (λ/Δ λ) of 20 000. These spectra will be used in an optimal estimation framework to retrieve XCO2. About 100 000 cloud free soundings of XCO2 each day will allow estimates of net CO2 fluxes on regional to continental scales to be determined. Here, we evaluate the OCO-2 spectrometer performance using pre-launch data acquired during instrument thermal vacuum tests in April 2012. A heliostat and a diffuser plate were used to feed direct sunlight into the OCO-2 instrument and spectra were recorded. These spectra were compared to those collected concurrently from a nearby high-resolution Fourier Transform Spectrometer that was part of the Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON). Using the launch-ready OCO-2 calibration and spectroscopic parameters, we performed total column scaling fits to all spectral bands and compared these to TCCON results. On 20 April, we detected a CO2 plume from the Los Angeles basin at the JPL site with strongly enhanced short-term variability on the order of 1% (3–4 ppm). We also found good (< 0.5 ppm) inter-footprint consistency in retrieved XCO2. The variations in spectral fitting residuals are consistent with signal-to-noise estimates from instrument calibration, while average residuals are systematic and mostly attributable to remaining errors in our knowledge of the CO2 and O2 spectroscopic parameters. A few remaining inconsistencies observed during the tests may be attributable to the specific instrument setup on the ground and will be re-evaluated with in-orbit data.
Natural methane (CH4) emissions from wet ecosystems are an important part of today's global CH4 budget. Climate affects the exchange of CH4 between ecosystems and the atmosphere by influencing CH4 ...production, oxidation, and transport in the soil. The net CH4 exchange depends on ecosystem hydrology, soil and vegetation characteristics. Here, the LPJ-WHyMe global dynamical vegetation model is used to simulate global net CH4 emissions for different ecosystems: northern peatlands (45°–90° N), naturally inundated wetlands (60° S–45° N), rice agriculture and wet mineral soils. Mineral soils are a potential CH4 sink, but can also be a source with the direction of the net exchange depending on soil moisture content. The geographical and seasonal distributions are evaluated against multi-dimensional atmospheric inversions for 2003–2005, using two independent four-dimensional variational assimilation systems. The atmospheric inversions are constrained by the atmospheric CH4 observations of the SCIAMACHY satellite instrument and global surface networks. Compared to LPJ-WHyMe the inversions result in a~significant reduction in the emissions from northern peatlands and suggest that LPJ-WHyMe maximum annual emissions peak about one month late. The inversions do not put strong constraints on the division of sources between inundated wetlands and wet mineral soils in the tropics. Based on the inversion results we diagnose model parameters in LPJ-WHyMe and simulate the surface exchange of CH4 over the period 1990–2008. Over the whole period we infer an increase of global ecosystem CH4 emissions of +1.11 Tg CH4 yr−1, not considering potential additional changes in wetland extent. The increase in simulated CH4 emissions is attributed to enhanced soil respiration resulting from the observed rise in land temperature and in atmospheric carbon dioxide that were used as input. The long-term decline of the atmospheric CH4 growth rate from 1990 to 2006 cannot be fully explained with the simulated ecosystem emissions. However, these emissions show an increasing trend of +3.62 Tg CH4 yr−1 over 2005–2008 which can partly explain the renewed increase in atmospheric CH4 concentration during recent years.
Two quantitative retrieval techniques were evaluated to estimate methane (CH4) enhancement in concentrated plumes using high spatial and moderate spectral resolution data from the Airborne ...Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS). An iterative maximum a posteriori differential optical absorption spectroscopy (IMAP-DOAS) algorithm performed well for an ocean scene containing natural CH4 emissions from the Coal Oil Point (COP) seep field near Santa Barbara, California. IMAP-DOAS retrieval precision errors are expected to equal between 0.31 to 0.61 ppm CH4 over the lowest atmospheric layer (height up to 1.04 km), corresponding to about a 30 to 60 ppm error for a 10 m thick plume. However, IMAP-DOAS results for a terrestrial scene were adversely influenced by the underlying land cover. A hybrid approach using singular value decomposition (SVD) was particularly effective for terrestrial surfaces because it could better account for spectral variability in surface reflectance. Using this approach, a CH4 plume was observed extending 0.1 km downwind of two hydrocarbon storage tanks at the Inglewood Oil Field in Los Angeles, California (USA) with a maximum near surface enhancement of 8.45 ppm above background. At COP, the distinct plume had a maximum enhancement of 2.85 ppm CH4 above background, and extended more than 1 km downwind of known seep locations. A sensitivity analysis also indicates CH4 sensitivity should be more than doubled for the next generation AVIRIS sensor (AVIRISng) due to improved spectral resolution and sampling. AVIRIS-like sensors offer the potential to better constrain emissions on local and regional scales, including sources of increasing concern like industrial point source emissions and fugitive CH4 from the oil and gas industry.
In the past two centuries, atmospheric methane has more than doubled and now constitutes 20% of the anthropogenic climate forcing by greenhouse gases. Yet its sources are not well quantified, ...introducing uncertainties in its global budget. We retrieved the global methane distribution by using spaceborne near-infrared absorption spectroscopy. In addition to the expected latitudinal gradient, we detected large-scale patterns of anthropogenic and natural methane emissions. Furthermore, we observed unexpectedly high methane concentrations over tropical rainforests, revealing that emission inventories considerably underestimated methane sources in these regions during the time period of investigation (August through November 2003).
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