The Improvement of Methane Plume Detection with High-Resolution Satellite-Based Imaging Spectrometers

Abstract

The detection and monitoring of methane anthropogenic emissions is of vital importance in order to curb global warming. Satellite-based imaging spectrometers, such as PRISMA and EnMAP, have proven instrumental in this task. Methane absorption features from the shortwave infrared spectral range (1000–2400 nm) are exploited by algorithms such as the matched-filter. This method can correctly characterize methane plumes, but retrieval artifacts disturb methane plume detection when using only those spectral channels related to the methane absorption features. Retrievals from simulated plumes and real emission cases from PRISMA and EnMAP data cubes are used to demonstrate that using the whole shortwave infrared region in the matched-filter method results in a better plume detection.

Keywords

• methane
• matched-filter
• retrieval
• plumes