NASA instrument detects dozens of methane super-emitters from space
An orbital NASA instrument designed mainly to advance studies of airborne dust and its effects on climate change has proven adept at another key Earth-science function - detecting large, worldwide emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
The device, called an imaging spectrometer, has identified more than 50 methane "super-emitters" in Central Asia, the Middle East and the Southwestern United States since it was installed in July aboard the International Space Station, NASA said on Tuesday.
The newly measured methane hotspots - some previously known and others just discovered - include sprawling oil and gas facilities and large landfills.
The spectrometer was built primarily to identify the mineral composition of dust blown into the atmosphere from Earth's deserts and other arid regions by measuring the wavelengths of light reflected from the surface soil in those areas.
That study, NASA's Earth Surface Mineral Dust Investigation, or EMIT, will help scientists determine whether airborne dust in different parts of the world is likely to trap or deflect heat from the sun, thus contributing to warming or cooling of the planet.
It turns out that methane absorbs infrared light in a unique pattern that EMIT's spectrometer can easily detect, according to scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) near Los Angeles, where the instrument was designed and built.
Circling Earth once every 90 minutes from its perch aboard the space station some 250 miles (420 km) high, EMIT is able to scan vast tracts of the planet dozens of miles across while also focusing in on areas as small as a soccer field.
"Some of the (methane) plumes EMIT detected are among the largest ever seen - unlike anything that has ever been observed from
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