NASA reports the first spacecraft observation of methane emissions from a specific leaking facility on Earth's surface.

The Hyperion spectrometer on NASA's Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite detected the methane leak on three separate overpasses near Porter Ranch, CA, during the winter of 2015-16. The data were collected as part of an investigation of the large accidental Aliso Canyon methane release last fall and winter.

(left) methane plumes detected by NASA's AVIRIS instrument on a NASA ER-2 aircraft at 4.1 miles (6.6 kilometers) altitude and (right) by the Hyperion instrument on NASA's Earth Observing-1 satellite in low-Earth orbit. (Credit: NASA-JPL/Caltech/GSFC)The Hyperion data were consistent with airborne measurements made by NASA's Airborne/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) imager flying onboard a NASA ER-2 aircraft.

"This is the first time the methane emissions from a single facility have been observed from space," said David R. Thompson of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "The percentage of atmospheric methane produced through human activities remains poorly understood. Future instruments with much greater sensitivity on orbiting satellites can help resolve this question by surveying the biggest sources around the world, so that we can better understand and address this unknown factor in greenhouse gas emissions."

Other institutions participating in the study include Caltech, Pasadena, CA; Helmholtz Centre Potsdam, GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Potsdam, Germany; and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD.