This is a Preprint and has not been peer reviewed. This is version 2 of this Preprint.

Satellite survey sheds new light on global solid waste methane emissions
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Abstract
Anthropogenic methane emissions are the second most important contributor to climate change, and their rapid reductions could help decrease near-term warming. Solid waste emits methane through the decay of organic material, which amounts to about 10% of total anthropogenic methane emissions. Satellite instruments enable monitoring of strong methane hotspots, including many strongly emitting urban areas that include landfills as most prominent sources. We present a survey of methane emissions from 151 individual waste disposal sites across six continents using high-resolution satellite observations. We find that managed landfills and dumping sites show similar levels of emission and our satellite-based estimates generally show no correlation with reported or modeled emission estimates. This reveals major uncertainties in the current understanding of methane emissions from waste-disposal sites, warranting further investigations to reconcile bottom-up and top-down approaches. We also emphasize how high-resolution satellite observations can help pinpoint where emissions originate within a facility, which often aligns with the area where waste is added. Our results highlight the potential of high-resolution satellite observations to detect and monitor methane emissions from the waste sector globally, providing actionable insights to help improve emission estimates and focus mitigation efforts.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.31223/X5TB09
Subjects
Atmospheric Sciences, Environmental Sciences
Keywords
Methane Satellites Waste Landfills
Dates
Published: 2024-07-09 11:37
Last Updated: 2024-07-09 18:38
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License
CC BY Attribution 4.0 International
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Conflict of interest statement:
None
Data Availability (Reason not available):
The raw data will be made available after peer-review, intermediate results are provided in the supplements
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