We're kicking off 2025 with the announcement of a new partner: GHGSat. This is a special one, because they've got some unique capabilities (namely emissions tracking), even amongst our already incredible roster.
Check out their marketplace pages for the technical details. But first, read on to find out why they're so important.
Who is GHGSat?
Founded in 2011, GHGSat is a global climate technology leader with pioneering emissions-monitoring capabilities that drive climate impact. With headquarters in Canada, they've expanded with offices around the world, including a European branch in London.
GHGSat has been monitoring emissions since 2016. Since then, they've launched aerial sensors and a constellation of 12 satellites, with 9 more launches planned through 2026.
Since inception, GHGSat's mission has been to take an active role in the mission against climate change by harnessing the power of satellites and aircraft imagery, to provide decision makers with the emissions insights required to take action.
As of this article's publication date, no other commercial or government entity has developed a measurement system precise enough to attribute emissions to individual facilities. But GHGSat has, for a very good reason.
The EU methane emissions law and the need for emissions tracking
Methane is a major contributor to global warming. It traps heat at an even higher rate than carbon dioxide, so if humanity is serious about fighting climate change, we need to get a handle on it.
The new EU Methane Regulation (EU/2024/1787) became law as of August 2024. It's designed to reduce the intentional releasing of methane into the atmosphere, which is often done for one of the below reasons:
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As a safety measure to prevent explosions at factories during pressure buildups
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Due to a lack of infrastructure with which to capture/process methane
But just releasing the methane into the atmosphere leads to more greenhouse gases. A sustainable approach would be to capture the methane and use it as a fuel source.
The regulation also mandates improved leak detection to reduce unintentional methane release, as well as more regular monitoring and reporting.
How do companies track their methane emissions?
The need for this regulation is obvious. But how are companies and factories supposed to go about emission tracking?
A common method is leak detection and repair (LDAR) programs, which use a combination of manual inspection modes, including infrared cameras, acoustic sensors, and even sniffer dogs. Alternatively, continuous detection sensors can be placed directly on equipment, or around emissions sites to measure ambient levels.
More indirect methods can also be used, such as mass calculation, which attempts to account for all methane produced, stored, and lost by a facility.
While all of these methods are valuable, they need plenty of time and dedicated ground staff, which can increase costs and cause safety concerns. That's where satellite data comes in.
Tracking greenhouse gas emissions with GHGSat
GHGSat's satellite fleet uses their patented Wide-Angle Fabry Perot (WAF-P) imaging spectrometer, which measures the absorption of sunlight by each greenhouse gas at a very high spectral resolution, making them the only organization today with this capability.
The satellites circle the earth in a north to south sun-synchronous (in a fixed position relative to the sun) polar orbit, approximately 500 km above Earth's surface. Each full orbit takes about 90 minutes. This allows for huge coverage across every continent, and near-daily revisit rates.
GHGSat's proprietary satellite technology, adapted for aerial monitoring on aircraft, operates at different altitudes trading spatial resolution for coverage to meet specific survey requirements and pinpointing emissions big or small right to the source. Their advanced satellite constellation, coupled with aircraft imagery and public data, provides unprecedented insights into the global emissions landscape.
Compared to manual on-location methods, this tiered monitoring approach saves huge amounts of time and effort, especially for organizations with sites spread around the world. GHGSat can help to identify problem areas and leaks from space much faster than inspection teams who would need to visit each site individually; since the beginning of their journey, they've enabled the mitigation of over 14.5 million tons of CO2. This amount is equivalent to the annual emissions of nearly 3.5 million gasoline-powered cars on U.S. roads.
Order GHGSat through UP42 today
Tracking greenhouse gas emissions and reducing them is one of our best bets for fighting global warming. And for companies doing business in or with Europe, it's now a legal must.
With data from GHGSat, tracking emissions just got a lot easier. Order GHGSat data through UP42 today.
