1) TROPOMI is an instrument on the Sentinel-5 Precursor satellite that measures methane and other gases with high spatial resolution daily global coverage. 2) TROPOMI detected a huge methane blow-out from an Ohio gas well in 2018, quantifying emissions at 120 ± 32 ton hr-1, demonstrating satellite detection of unpredictable emission events. 3) TROPOMI also found methane emissions in the Permian Basin to be more than double inventory estimates, showing the importance of atmospheric measurements to verify inventories.

1. Maasakkers, Pandey, Sadavarte, Houweling, van der Gon, Ritesh,
Lorente, Borsdorff, Landgraf, Zhang, McKeefer, Jervis, Varon, Ilse
Aben
SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, NL
Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), USA
TNO, NL
Harvard University, USA, and GHGSat.Inc, Canada
Thanks to the entire TROPOMI team
Using satellite observations to detect and quantify
concentrated methane emissions

2. TROPOMI
• TROPOMI is single instrument on Sentinel-5 Precursor developed by the
Netherlands & ESA, operational since May 2018
• Part of the EU Copernicus program and the 1st atmospheric Sentinel
mission (S5-P, S4, S5)
• Measures many species : O3, NO2, SO2, HCHO, CO, CH4, AAI, … (total
column concentrations), data freely available within 3 hours, CH4 2 days
2
ADSN
• High spatial resolution
• Daily global coverage
7 x 5.5 km2
Pushbroom UV-VIS_NIR-SWIR spectrometer

3. Satellite observations of methane
3
Satellites complementary to surface network
• Unique : Global
• challenging
Emissions give very small gradients
in concentration field total columns.
Lifetime CH4 atmosphere ~10 years
 o.a. cloud-free (few % data used)

4. 4
Accidental & short but huge source detected by TROPOMI :
the Ohio blow-out case
Feb-March 2018 (~3 weeks)
Newly drilled well exploded
120 ± 32 ton hr-1
TROPOMI the only CH4 measurement
Illustrating the strength of routine
satellite measurements in detecting
and quantifying CH4 emissions unpredictable events Pandey et al, PNAS 2019

5. Permian basin CH4 emissions
5
MAIN RESULT
Emissions more than 2x
inventory estimates
Showing the importance of atmospheric measurements
to verify inventory estimates Zhang et al, Science Adv. 2020
Dermasky

6. Satellite discovery of anomalously large CH4
point source in central Asia Oil/Gas production
6
Varon, Maasakkers et al. GRL 2019
GHGsat : commercial satellite
measuring CH4 at facility scale (50 meter)
with a small satellite.
Per orbit : an area of 10x10 km2
GHGSat-D(emonstrator) launched in 2016
GHGSat-C1 : launched 2 Sept 2020
7x higher sensitivity, 30 m
GHGSat-C2 : launch Dec. 2020
By 2022 : constellation of 10 in orbit
Bulianta, China Varon et al.

7. 7
Scarpelli et al, 2019
GHGsat
Varon et al, GRL, 2019

8. 8
TROPOMI
Varon, Maasakkers et al. GRL 2019
Leak was fixed
TROPOMI:since Nov. 2017
27 Jan 2019
wind
wind
wind
quantified all
GHGsat 32 t hr-1 17 t hr-1
TROPOMI 60 t hr-1 47 t hr-1

9. SYNERGY TROPOMI and GHGSat :
9
Powerful tool to
identify localized CH4
leaks at facility scale

10. • So far analised few case studies in detail, low hanging fruit
(large emissions) CH4 TROPOMI
• Detected persistent and transient sources
• Detected point and area sources
• Developed various methods for emission quantification, will be
further improved
• Developing automated tools now for detection (and
quantification emissions)
• Unique potential combining TROPOMI-like with GHGsat-like CH4
observations to pinpoint emissions at facility scale
• Will also serve in preparation of Europe’s Sentinel-5 missions
(2023-204x) and CO2Mission (2026 - …)
10
TROPOMI data : scihub.Copernicus.eu
TROPOMI info : tropomi.eu