Imperial College London
Portrait Picture

Professor Adam Hawkes

Faculty of Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering

Professor of Energy Systems
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 9300a.hawkes

 
 
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Location

 

RODH.503Roderic Hill BuildingSouth Kensington Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Dubey:2023:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.162222,
author = {Dubey, L and Cooper, J and Hawkes, A},
doi = {10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.162222},
journal = {Science of the Total Environment},
pages = {1--9},
title = {Minimum detection limits of the TROPOMI satellite sensor across North America and their implications for measuring oil and gas methane emissions},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.162222},
volume = {872},
year = {2023}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Methane emissions from natural gas are of ever-increasing importance as we struggle to reach Paris climate targets. Locating and measuring emissions from natural gas can be particularly difficult as they are often widely distributed across supply chains. Satellites are increasingly used to measure these emissions, with some such as TROPOMI giving daily coverage worldwide, making locating and quantifying these emissions easier. However, there is little understanding of the real-world detection limits of TROPOMI, which can cause emissions to go undetected or be misattributed. This paper uses TROPOMI and meteorological data to calculate, and create a map of, the minimum detection limits of the TROPOMI satellite sensor across North America for different campaign lengths. We then compared these to emission inventories to determine the quantity of emissions that can be captured by TROPOMI. We find that minimum detection limits vary from 500-8800 kg/h/pixel in a single overpass to 50-1200 kg/h/pixel for a yearlong campaign. This leads to 0.04 % of a year's emissions being captured in a single (day) measurement to 14.4 % in a 1-year measurement campaign. Assuming gas sites contain super-emitters, emissions of between 4.5 % - 10.1 % from a single measurement and 35.6 % - 41.1 % for a yearlong campaign are captured.
AU  - Dubey,L
AU  - Cooper,J
AU  - Hawkes,A
DO  - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.162222
EP  - 9
PY  - 2023///
SN  - 0048-9697
SP  - 1
TI  - Minimum detection limits of the TROPOMI satellite sensor across North America and their implications for measuring oil and gas methane emissions
T2  - Science of the Total Environment
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.162222
UR  - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36796684
UR  - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969723008380
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/102965
VL  - 872
ER  -
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