TY - JOUR

T1 - High-resolution methane mapping with the EnMAP satellite imaging spectroscopy mission

AU - Roger, Javier

AU - Irakulis-Loitxate, Itziar

AU - Valverde, Adriana

AU - Gorrono, Javier

AU - Chabrillat, Sabine

AU - Brell, Maximilian

AU - Guanter, Luis

PY - 2024/1/30

Y1 - 2024/1/30

N2 - Methane mitigation from anthropogenic sources such as in the production and transport of fossil fuels has been found as one of the most promising strategies to curb global warming in the near future. Satellite-based imaging spectrometers have demonstrated to be well-suited to detect and quantify these emissions at high spatial resolution, which allows the attribution of plumes to sources. The PRISMA satellite mission (ASI, Italy) has been successfully used for this application and the recently-launched EnMAP mission (DLR/GFZ, Germany) presents similar spatial and spectral characteristics (30 m spatial resolution, 30 km swath, about 8 nm spectral sampling at 2300 nm). In this work, we investigate the potential and limitations of EnMAP for methane remote sensing, using PRISMA as a benchmark to deduce its added-value. We analyze the spectral and radiometric performance of EnMAP in the 2300 nm region used for methane retrievals acquired using the matched-filter method. Our results show that in arid areas, EnMAP spectral resolution is about 2.7 nm finer and the signal-to-noise-ratio values are approximately twice as large, which leads to an improvement in retrieval performance. Several EnMAP examples of plumes from different sources around the world with flux rate values ranging from 1 to 20 t/h are illustrated. We show plumes from sectors such as onshore oil and gas and coal mining, but also from more challenging sectors such as landfills and offshore oil and gas. We detect two plumes in a close-to-sunglint configuration dataset with unprecedented flux rates of about 1 t/h, which suggests that the detection limit in offshore areas can be considerably lower under favorable conditions.

AB - Methane mitigation from anthropogenic sources such as in the production and transport of fossil fuels has been found as one of the most promising strategies to curb global warming in the near future. Satellite-based imaging spectrometers have demonstrated to be well-suited to detect and quantify these emissions at high spatial resolution, which allows the attribution of plumes to sources. The PRISMA satellite mission (ASI, Italy) has been successfully used for this application and the recently-launched EnMAP mission (DLR/GFZ, Germany) presents similar spatial and spectral characteristics (30 m spatial resolution, 30 km swath, about 8 nm spectral sampling at 2300 nm). In this work, we investigate the potential and limitations of EnMAP for methane remote sensing, using PRISMA as a benchmark to deduce its added-value. We analyze the spectral and radiometric performance of EnMAP in the 2300 nm region used for methane retrievals acquired using the matched-filter method. Our results show that in arid areas, EnMAP spectral resolution is about 2.7 nm finer and the signal-to-noise-ratio values are approximately twice as large, which leads to an improvement in retrieval performance. Several EnMAP examples of plumes from different sources around the world with flux rate values ranging from 1 to 20 t/h are illustrated. We show plumes from sectors such as onshore oil and gas and coal mining, but also from more challenging sectors such as landfills and offshore oil and gas. We detect two plumes in a close-to-sunglint configuration dataset with unprecedented flux rates of about 1 t/h, which suggests that the detection limit in offshore areas can be considerably lower under favorable conditions.

KW - Absorption

KW - EnMAP

KW - Imaging

KW - Instruments

KW - matched-filter

KW - Methane

KW - methane

KW - plumes

KW - retrieval

KW - Signal to noise ratio

KW - Spatial resolution

KW - Wind speed

KW - matched filter

KW - methane (CH )

KW - Environmental Mapping and Analysis Program (EnMAP)

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85182366611&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1109/TGRS.2024.3352403

DO - 10.1109/TGRS.2024.3352403

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85182366611

VL - 62

JO - IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing

JF - IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing

SN - 0196-2892

M1 - 4102012

ER -