Maryann Sargent: Mapping US methane emissions with MethaneAIR

MethaneSAT has been developed by the Environmental Defense Fund and is scheduled to launch in March 2024.  The satellite has been designed to quantify CH4 emissions from regions accounting for over 80% of global oil and gas production, with the goal of enabling rapid emission reductions.  With a 200 km-wide observing swath, it will fill a critical gap between global mapping satellites and point-source missions. MethaneAIR was designed as an aircraft-borne precursor to MethaneSAT, which remotely measures methane and can map ~10,000 km2 per day.  MethaneAIR was deployed for >60 flights in 2023, sampling >80% of US onshore oil and gas production, along with landfill, agriculture, and coal targets.  A geostatistical inverse model was employed to estimate total area emissions and their spatial distribution, allowing for basin-to-basin comparisons.  Point sources were quantified using a Divergence Integral method, which was validated using single-blinded volume-controlled release experiments in 2021 and 2022.  We have quantified ~450 plumes larger than ~300 kg/hr from the flight series.  

Bio

Maryann Sargent is a senior project scientist at the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University.  She received her PhD in Engineering Science from Harvard University.  She led the MethaneAIR campaign in 2023, which consisted of over 60 science flights and sampled >80% of US onshore oil and gas production.  She is also designing automated plume detection algorithms and point source quantification methods for the MethaneAIR and MethaneSAT programs.  Her past research has also focused on quantifying regional methane and CO2 emissions from a tower network in Boston, MA.