High-Resolution Methane Detection with the GHGSat Constellation

Antoine Ramier , Marianne Girard, Dylan Jervis, Jean Philippe MacLean, David Marshall, Jason McKeever, Mathias Strupler, Ewan Tarrant, David Young

GHGSat operates a constellation of small satellites designed to detect and quantify methane emissions with high sensitivity compared with existing satellite technologies. An important feature of GHGSat measurements is the high spatial resolution (~25m), which enables attribution of emissions to specific facilities and subsequent corrective action from the operator. The GHGSat constellation currently has 9 satellites in orbit, and 3 more are planned for launch before the end of 2023 which will enable up to daily revisit times for any site in the world. This proceeding provides an overview of the GHGSat instruments, constellation, and processing algorithms. We also evaluate key instrument performance metrics, including column precision, detection threshold and quantification accuracy.