Report on climate and science, BBC News
MethanesatAn $ 88 million satellite (65 million pounds sterling) designed to detect the versions of gas methane warming the planet from oil and gas production was lost in a major setback for climate efforts.
The Methanesat satellite, which had the support of Google and billionaire Jeff Bezos, was only launched last year on an Elon Musk Spacex rocket.
It was intended to collect data for five years on powerful green greenhouse gases, which is responsible for almost a third of warming induced by humans, to help reduce the worst delinquents.
The environmental defense fund, the NGO supervising the satellite, said that communication was lost ten days ago and is currently undertaking an investigation into what happened.
Methane is the most powerful greenhouse gases, and although it does not drag in the atmosphere as long as carbon dioxide, it is 28 times stronger over a period of 100 years.
Despite an international commitment to reducing methane levels by 30% by 2030, it continues year, it continues to increase with the objective that can be achieved, according to the European space agency.
The main sources of methane come from the production of oil and gas, agriculture and food decomposition in the discharges.
But many of the current satellites that monitor it are used in private, reducing the transparency of the worst offenders for the liberation of methane.
Methanesat came after years of development by the NGO Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and a launched day made a large part of its data accessible to the public, allowing a meticulous examination by governments and scientists.
It was supported by a consortium of technology giants, including Google and the billionaire Jeff Bezos, who together brought $ 88 million to the project.
The instruments used by the satellite are among the most sensitive in the world, capable of collecting much smaller sources of methane as well as “super-emotters”.
Improving sensitivity is important to detect versions of agriculture which are often much more diffuse than oil and gas production.
‘Probably not recoverable’
Google said that when it was launched, he hoped that his project “would fill the gaps between existing tools”.
The company used its artificial intelligence tools to process data and generate a global methane card.
But after only a year in orbit, in what was to be a five -year program, communication was lost with Methanesat.
The EDF team suspects that the satellite has lost power and said in a statement “that it was probably not recoverable”.
He continued by saying that some software could be reused, but said it was too early to say if a new satellite would be launched.
“To resolve the climate challenge, it takes daring action and risk-taking and this satellite was at the cutting edge of science, technology and advocacy,” he added.
One of the other large sources available publicly from methane data is hosted by Carbonmapper. One of its data sources is the tropomi instrument on the Sentinel-5P satellite from the European Space Agency. Although it continues to return data, its seven -year program was to end in October.
It is not known how long he can continue to collect information, which limits global efforts more to follow greenhouse gases.
