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Enhanced monitoring of atmospheric methane from space over the Permian basin with hierarchical Bayesian inference

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineLetterpeer-review

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  • Clayton Roberts
  • Oliver Shorttle
  • Kaisey Mandel
  • Matthew Jones
  • Rutger Ijzermans
  • Bill Hirst
  • Philip Jonathan
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Article number064037
<mark>Journal publication date</mark>1/06/2022
<mark>Journal</mark>Environmental Research Letters
Issue number6
Volume17
Number of pages15
Publication StatusPublished
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

Abstract: Methane is a strong greenhouse gas, with a higher radiative forcing per unit mass and shorter atmospheric lifetime than carbon dioxide. The remote sensing of methane in regions of industrial activity is a key step toward the accurate monitoring of emissions that drive climate change. Whilst the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) on board the Sentinal-5P satellite is capable of providing daily global measurement of methane columns, data are often compromised by cloud cover. Here, we develop a statistical model which uses nitrogen dioxide concentration data from TROPOMI to efficiently predict values of methane columns, expanding the average daily spatial coverage of observations of the Permian basin from 16% to 88% in the year 2019. The addition of predicted methane abundances at locations where direct observations are not available will support inversion methods for estimating methane emission rates at shorter timescales than is currently possible.