Detecting cow burps from space
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Detecting cow burps from space
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About this listen
In March 2024, a satellite built to detect the potent greenhouse gas methane launched into orbit – backed by New Zealand to a final total of $32 million. MethaneSAT aimed to pinpoint large leaks from oil and gas fields, since plugging these is considered an easy climate win. But an add-on mission was investigating whether the satellite could pick up the smaller, more diffuse methane emissions from agriculture. Our Changing World joined the New Zealand-based team testing this capability – before disaster struck. With MethaneSAT uncontactable and lost in space, what did the mission deliver?
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In this episode:
00:00 – 03:08: Introduction
03:08 – 05:38: A methane-measuring device takes off from the airfield
05:38 – 16:32: Ground-based methane measurements with the EM-27
16:32 – 25:29: What went wrong, and what data MethaneSAT did collect…
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details