MethaneSAT is a new satellite funded by donations that aims to measure methane emissions globally to help reduce them. Its high resolution could allow detecting diffuse agricultural emissions for the first time from space. New Zealand's researchers will help develop methods to measure agricultural methane using MethaneSAT data. They will test these methods with measurement campaigns in New Zealand, where agriculture is a major source of methane emissions. The goal is to then apply this capability to measure methane from livestock and rice farming globally.

1. MethaneSAT: Towards measuring agricultural
methane emissions from space
Sara Mikaloff-Fletcher1, Beata Bukosa1, Alex Geddes2, Hinrich Schaefer1, David Noone3, Joshua
Benmergui4, Steve Wofsy4, Jonathan Franklin4, Steven Hamburg5, David Pollard2, Dan Smale2,
Gordon Brailsford1, Jocelyn Turnbull6, Darren King7, Louis Schipper8, Jordan Goodrich9, David
Cambell9, Johannes Laubach10, Richard Law11
1National Institute for Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), Wellington, New Zealand. 2National Institute for Water and
Atmospheric Research (NIWA), Lauder, New Zealand. 3University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand. 4Harvard University, Boston,
USA. 5MethaneSAT LLC/EDF, Boston, USA. 6GNS Science, Lower Hutt, New Zealand. 7National Institute for Water and Atmospheric
Research (NIWA), Nelson, New Zealand. 8University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand. 9Univesity of Waikato, Hamilton, New
Zealand. 10Manaaki Whenua Landcare Reserch, Lincoln, New Zealand. 11Manaaki Whenua Landcare Reserch, Wellington, New Zealand

2. MethaneSAT
• First GHG satellite funded
primarily by charitable
donations through EDF
• Core Mission: reduce fossil
emissions of CH4 by 45% by
2025 by identifying oil and gas
leaks. Science Team: Harvard
and SAO
• The NZ government has joined
the MethaneSAT mission. We
will build the MOCC in
Auckland and host a Science
Programme that will lead the
development of agricultural
research using data from the
satellite

3. MethaneSAT is unique
• Large geographic regions:
200km by 200km targets
• High spatial resolution
Methane mapped at 130 by
400m resolution within those
regions
• Unprecedented precision
Predicted 2-4ppb precision when
averaged to 1.5km spatial
resolution
• Emissions estimates
Inverse modelling fully
integrated into the
programmme

4. The challenge: diffuse emissions from agriculture
• MethaneSAT was designed to
detect large point source emissions
from oil and natural gas.
• Agricultural emissions are often
more diffuse, weaker
• MethaneSAT will be the first
satellite suited to detect
agricultural emissions at these
spatial scales
• We have the extraordinary
opportunity to be the first to
develop this capability world wide

5. New Zealand as a testbed
• CH4 emissions are dominated by a
single source.
CH4 emissions make up nearly half of our gross
emissions budget, and 85% of these emissions are
from agriculture.
• CH4 measurement capability.
One of the two founding TCCON sites and a growing
national network of surface sites (9 CH4 sites by the
end of 2021).
• Atmospheric modelling capability.
1.5km resolution atmospheric modelling nation-wide.
National scale inverse modelling using ground-based
observing sites.
• Bottom-up data.
Seasonally varying high resolution emission maps.
Strong history of eddy covariance studies.
Lauder, New Zealand

6. 1760
1765
1770
1775
1785
1780
1795
1790
1805
1800
Waikato
Canterbury
Plains
Taranaki
Southland
Will we be able to detect diffuse agricultural emissions from space?

7. Background
methane
Regional
enhancement
WIND
EM27
“upstream”
EM27 “downstream”
xCH4
difference
MethaneSAT
Eddy
covaria
nce
Sun
In situ profiles
1
2
3
4
Sub-orbital measurements

8. Source: Jackson et al. 2020 ERL (Fig 2)
Globally, agriculture is responsible for methane emissions
than any other human activity

9. Site Selection
• Are emissions large enough to be detected from space? Is there a clear
spatial gradient in the emissions? (best bottom up maps, meteorological
data, box modelling)
• Are these emissions clearly detectable over other sources? (comparison
with other emissions data)
• Will we be able to collect good quality satellite data often enough?
(Albedo, cloudiness, other meteorological data)

10. South East of Sioux Falls, Eastern Great Plains

11. Indus Valley, Pakistan

12. Summary
• The MethaneSAT mission aims to detect anthropogenic emissions of CH4
around the world and galvanize emissions reductions, especially fossil
emissions. The NZ team is developing the applications of this satellite data
for agricultural emissions.
• We will test this capability in Aotearoa New Zealand with a ground and air-
craft based measurement campaign
• In addition, we are in the process of developing a strategy to target
agricultural emissions from animals and rice around the world and are
interested in developing collaborations with other groups