Abstract

<p>Production of oil and natural gas in North America is at an all-time high due to the development and use of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. Methane emissions associated with this industrial activity are a concern because of the contribution to climate radiative forcing. We present new measurements from the space-based TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) launched in 2017 that show methane enhancements over production regions in the United States. Using methane and NO<sub>2</sub> column measurements from the new TROPOMI instrument, we show that emissions from oil and gas production in the Uintah and Permian Basins can be observed in the data from individual overpasses. This is a vast improvement over measurements from previous satellite instruments, which typically needed to be averaged over a year or more to quantify trends and regional enhancements in methane emissions. In the Uintah Basin in Utah, TROPOMI methane columns correlated with in-situ measurements, and the highest columns were observed over the deepest parts of the basin, consistent with the accumulation of emissions underneath inversions. In the Permian Basin in Texas and New Mexico, methane columns showed maxima over regions with the highest natural gas production and were correlated with nitrogen-dioxide columns at a ratio that is consistent with results from in-situ airborne measurements. The improved detail provided by TROPOMI will likely enable the timely monitoring from space of methane and NO2 emissions associated with regular oil and natural gas production.</p>

Highlights

  • Methane is the second most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas in the atmosphere after carbon dioxide[1]

  • In comparison with its predecessor, the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI)[20], TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) has an improved spatial resolution of up to 7 × 3.5 km[2] and added a short-wave infrared radiation (SWIR) band that allows the detection of methane and carbon monoxide[21]

  • Using methane and NO2 column measurements from the new TROPOMI instrument, we have shown that emissions from oil and gas production in the Uintah and Permian Basins can be observed in the data from individual overpasses

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Summary

Introduction

Methane is the second most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas in the atmosphere after carbon dioxide[1]. Measurements of methane emissions in oil and gas production areas have been made using surface monitors[9,10] and from research aircraft[11–13] The latter are labor intensive and only provide snapshots of emissions, which www.nature.com/scientificreports may be an issue as episodic, large emissions can represent a relatively large fraction of the total[14]. Using corroborating evidence from ground-based and airborne measurements, we show that the observed methane enhancements in single overpasses can be attributed to emissions into the boundary layer from oil and natural gas production. These results suggest that the future determination of regional methane emissions with a high time resolution and soon after the time of emission will be feasible

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