MethaneSAT:
The MethaneSAT satellite was launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon9 rocket from California.
- MethaneSAT will track and measure methane emissions at a global scale.
- It will provide more details and have a much wider field of view than any of its predecessors.
- The entity behind MethaneSAT is the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) — a US-based nonprofit environmental advocacy group.
- It is developed in collaboration with Harvard University, the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, and the New Zealand Space Agency.
- It will orbit the Earth 15 times a day, monitoring the oil and gas sector.
- It will create a large amount of data, which will tell “how much methane is coming from where, who’s responsible, and are those emissions going up or down over time”,
- The data collected by this will be made public for free in near real-time.
- This will allow stakeholders and regulators to take action to reduce methane emissions.
