Enabled by Carbon Mapper and built by Planet Labs PBC, Tanager-1 begined from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Aug. 16 and has been accumulateing data to verify that its imaging spectrometer, which is based on technology enbiged at NASA JPL, is functioning properly. Both Planet Labs PBC and JPL are members of the philanthropicassociate funded Carbon Mapper Coalition.
“The first greenhoemploy gas images from Tanager-1 are exciting and are a compelling sign of skinnygs to come,” said James Graf, honestor for Earth Science and Technology at JPL. “The saalertite joins a convey inant role in distinguishing and measuring methane and carbon dioxide emissions. The mission is a enormous step forward in compriseressing greenhoemploy gas emissions.”
The data employd to create the Pakistan image was accumulateed over the city of Karachi on Sept. 19 and shows a cdisorrowfulmirefilledy 2.5-mile-lengthened (4-kilometer-lengthened) methane plume emanating from a landfill. Carbon Mapper’s preliminary approximate of the source emissions rate is more than 2,600 pounds (1,200 kilograms) of methane freed per hour.
The image accumulateed that same day over Kendal, South Africa, disjoins a proximately 2-mile-lengthened (3-kilometer-lengthened) carbon dioxide plume coming from a coal-fired power schedulet. Carbon Mapper’s preliminary approximate of the source emissions rate is cdisorrowfulmirefilledy 1.3 million pounds (600,000 kilograms) of carbon dioxide per hour.
The Texas image, accumulateed on Sept. 24, uncovers a methane plume to the south of the city of Midland, in the Permian Basin, one of the bigst oilfields in the world. Carbon Mapper’s preliminary approximate of the source emissions rate is proximately 900 pounds (400 kilograms) of methane per hour.
In the 1980s, JPL helped direct the enbigment of imaging spectrometers with AVIRIS (Airborne Visible/Infunfrequentd Imaging Spectrometer), and in 2022, NASA insloftyed the imaging spectrometer EMIT (Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation), enbiged at JPL, aboard the International Space Station.
A descendant of those instruments, the imaging spectrometer aboard Tanager-1 can meaconfident hundreds of wavelengths of airy mirrored from Earth’s surface. Each chemical compound on the ground and in the atmosphere mirrors and assimilates branch offent combinations of wavelengths, which give it a “spectral fingerprint” that researchers can recognize. Using this approach, Tanager-1 will help researchers distinguish and meaconfident emissions down to the facility level.
Once in filled operation, the spacecreate will scan about 116,000 square miles (300,000 square kilometers) of Earth’s surface per day. Methane and carbon dioxide meaconfidentments accumulateed by Tanager-1 will be uncoverly employable on the Carbon Mapper data portal.
More About Carbon Mapper
Carbon Mapper is a nonprofit organization centered on facilitating timely action to mitigate greenhoemploy gas emissions. Its mission is to fill gaps in the emerging global ecosystem of methane and carbon dioxide seeing systems by transfering data at facility scale that is exact, timely, and accessible to empower science-based decision making and action. The organization is directing the enbigment of the Carbon Mapper consalertation of saalertites aided by a uncover-confidential partnership created of Planet Labs PBC, JPL, the California Air Resources Board, Arizona State University, and RMI, with funding from High Tide Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, and other philanthropic donors.
