MethaneSAT
methanesat.org
methanesat.org
They got $100MM from Bezos for their methane efforts which doesn’t appear to be on this site, but is no secret (EDF has talked about it since the grant was made). They have other methane efforts other than the ghgsat though that’s presumably the most expensive of their CH4 projects.
> #1: MethaneSAT is the world's first satellite launched by an independent NGO.
So have they or have they not deployed?
I think Planet’s next gen microsat approach will be more sophisticated but that’s a couple of years away.
Here's my even shorter version:
Methane is a potent greenhouse gas. Methane emissions follow a heavy-tailed distribution: a few sources are responsible for a lot of emissions. Some emissions (related to the oil industry, and those related to agriculture) are due to leaks or transient conditions that can be remedied with little effort.
You can detect methane concentrations, and even active plumes, from space with imaging spectroscopy. This is a technology that has been demonstrated by space agencies, including NASA and ESA.
Some of those who pioneered these methods (which were science investigations) are trying to push out a simpler, operational version of this technology to get more methane concentration measurements, and faster.