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Four corners: The largest US methane anomaly viewed from space
Author(s) -
Kort Eric A.,
Frankenberg Christian,
Costigan Keeley R.,
Lindenmaier Rodica,
Dubey Manvendra K.,
Wunch Debra
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1002/2014gl061503
Subject(s) - methane , greenhouse gas , environmental science , natural gas , anomaly (physics) , atmospheric sciences , methane emissions , coalbed methane , coal , meteorology , geology , coal mining , physics , chemistry , oceanography , organic chemistry , condensed matter physics
Methane (CH 4 ) is a potent greenhouse gas and ozone precursor. Quantifying methane emissions is critical for projecting and mitigating changes to climate and air quality. Here we present CH 4 observations made from space combined with Earth‐based remote sensing column measurements. Results indicate the largest anomalous CH 4 levels viewable from space over the conterminous U.S. are located at the Four Corners region in the Southwest U.S. Emissions exceeding inventory estimates, totaling 0.59 Tg CH 4 /yr [0.50–0.67; 2 σ ], are necessary to bring high‐resolution simulations and observations into agreement. This underestimated source approaches 10% of the EPA estimate of total U.S. CH 4 emissions from natural gas. The persistence of this CH 4 signal from 2003 onward indicates that the source is likely from established gas, coal, and coalbed methane mining and processing. This work demonstrates that space‐based observations can identify anomalous CH 4 emission source regions and quantify their emissions with the use of a transport model.