Global identification of solid waste methane super emitters using hyperspectral satellites

This is a Preprint and has not been peer reviewed.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

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Authors

Xin Zhang, Joannes D. Maasakkers, Javier Roger, Luis Guanter, Shubham Sharma, Srijana Lama, Paul Tol, Daniel J. Varon , Daniel H Cusworth, Kate Howell, Andrew Thorpe, Phillip G Brodrick, Ilse Aben 

Abstract

Solid waste is the third largest source of anthropogenic methane and mitigating emissions is crucial for addressing climate change. We combine three high-resolution (30–60 m) hyperspectral satellite imagers (EMIT, EnMAP, and PRISMA) to quantify emissions from 38 strongly-emitting disposal sites across worldwide urban methane hotspots. The imagers give consistent emission estimates, with EMIT and EnMAP having better sensitivity than PRISMA. Total observed emissions add up to 230 ± 15 t h-1, representing 5% of reported global solid waste emissions. Our estimates exceed the facility-level Climate TRACE inventory by a factor of 1.8, while we only detect emissions from 9 of the inventory’s 20 highest-emitting sites, highlighting the importance of facility-level information. Furthermore, multi-month observations reveal emission patterns potentially linked to facility operations. We estimate that these instruments could detect up to 60% of global landfill emissions, critically expanding on satellite instruments designed for methane and supporting emission mitigation.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.31223/X57132

Subjects

Atmospheric Sciences, Environmental Sciences

Keywords

methane, Hyperspectral, landfill, satellite, remote sensing

Dates

Published: 2024-11-01 15:56

Last Updated: 2024-12-04 00:00

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License

CC BY Attribution 4.0 International

Additional Metadata

Data Availability (Reason not available):
Retrieval and emission data will be available on Zenodo: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13643544.