Methane hot spot in US is 3x expected size: study

[Buster's Uncle]

Methane hot spot in US is 3x expected size: study
AFP
19 hours ago



A study by NASA and the University of Michigan indicates that fracking is not to blame for vast amounts of methane spewing into the atmosphere from one area in the southwestern US, but that coal mining may play a role (AFP Photo/George Frey)



Washington (AFP) - One area in the southwestern United States is spewing vast amounts of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere far faster than expected, US space agency researchers said Thursday.

Satellite data show more than triple the previously estimated amount of methane is coming from the hot spot located near the Four Corners intersection of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah.

The study by NASA and the University of Michigan spanned the years of 2003-2009, before hydraulic fracturing for natural gas began in earnest in the area, signaling that fracking is not to blame.

Rather, the persistence of the emissions "indicates that the source is likely from established gas, coal, and coalbed methane mining and processing," said the study in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union.

The hot spot area is about 2,500 square miles (6,500 square kilometers), and each year has released about 0.59 million metric tons of methane into the atmosphere.

"This is almost 3.5 times the estimate for the same area in the European Union's widely used Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research," said the study.

Researchers used observations from an instrument called the Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric Chartography (SCIAMACHY), which circles the Earth on an European Space Agency satellite.

A ground station operated by the Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory, provided independent validation of the measurement.

Methane traps heat in the atmosphere and contributes to global warming. It has no color or odor, making it hard to detect without advanced scientific tools.

Scientists studying the SCIAMACHY data first noticed the methane problem some years ago, said research scientist Christian Frankenberg of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.

"We didn't focus on it, because we weren't sure if it was a true signal or an instrument error," Frankenberg said.

Lead study author Eric Kort of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, said more needs to be done to contain methane leaks from established oil and gas operations.

"The results are indicative that emissions from established fossil fuel harvesting techniques are greater than inventoried," Kort said.

"There's been so much attention on high-volume hydraulic fracturing, but we need to consider the industry as a whole."


http://news.yahoo.com/methane-hot-spot-us-3x-expected-size-study-234946474.html

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Has Dale been to the US lately?

[Buster's Uncle]

Satellite sees hot spot of methane in US Southwest
Associated Press
By SETH BORENSTEIN  21 hours ago



This undated handout image provided by NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Michigan, shows The Four Corners area, in red, left, is the major US hot spot for methane emissions in this map showing how much emissions varied from average background concentrations from 2003-2009 (dark colors are lower than average; lighter colors are higher. Satellite data spotted a surprising hot spot of the potent heat-trapping gas methane over part of the American southwest. Those measurements hint that U.S. Environmental Protection Agency considerably underestimates leaks of natural gas, also called methane. In a new look at methane from space, the four corners area of New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona and Utah jump out in glowing red with about 1.3 million pounds of methane a year. That’s about 80 percent more than the EPA figured and traps more heat than all the carbon dioxide produced yearly in Sweden. (AP Photo/NASA, JPL-Caltech, University of Michigan)



WASHINGTON (AP) — A surprising hot spot of the potent global-warming gas methane hovers over part of the southwestern U.S., according to satellite data.

That result hints that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other agencies considerably underestimate leaks of methane, which is also called natural gas.

The higher level of methane is not a local safety or a health issue for residents, but factors in overall global warming. It is likely leakage from pumping methane out of coal mines. While methane isn't the most plentiful heat-trapping gas, scientists worry about its increasing amounts and have had difficulties tracking emissions.

A satellite image of atmospheric methane concentrations over the continental U.S. shows the hot spot as a bright red blip over the Four Corners area of New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona and Utah. The image used data from 2003 to 2009.

Within that hot spot, a European satellite found atmospheric methane concentrations equivalent to emissions of about 1.3 million pounds a year. That's about 80 percent more than the EPA figured. Other ground-based studies have calculated that EPA estimates were off by 50 percent.

The methane concentration in the hot spot was more than triple the amount previously estimated by European scientists.

The new study, done by NASA and the University of Michigan, was released Thursday by the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

The amount of methane in the Four Corners — an area covering about 2,500 square miles — would trap more heat in the atmosphere than all the carbon dioxide produced yearly in Sweden. That's because methane is 86 times more potent for trapping heat in the short-term than carbon dioxide.

"It's the largest signal we can see from the satellite," said study lead author Eric Kort, a University of Michigan atmospheric scientist. "It's hard to hide from space."

There could be some areas elsewhere in the country where more methane is emitted if it is dispersed by wind, Kort said.

Kort said the methane likely comes from leaks as workers extract natural gas from coal beds, and not from hydraulic fracturing, called fracking, because the data were collected before fracking really caught on.

The results were so initially surprising to the scientists that they waited several years and then used ground monitors to verify what they saw from space, Kort said.

Several methane experts said the research makes sense to them and that the detected methane amount is disturbing.

"That is immense," Terry Engelder, a scientist at Pennsylvania State University, wrote in an email.

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NASA's Earth science research: http://www.nasa.gov/earthrightnow


http://news.yahoo.com/satellites-see-hot-spot-methane-us-southwest-201603529.html