Canadian emissions monitoring company GHGSat successfully launched the Vanguard satellite from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, marking a significant advance in the detection of carbon dioxide emissions from individual facilities, such as coal plants and steel mills, from space.
Amid the climate change crisis driven by industrial activities releasing greenhouse gases (GHGs), space-age technology is increasingly utilized to hold polluting industries accountable. GHGSat’s Vanguard satellite gathers data that can be purchased by industrial emitters aiming to reduce emissions, as well as accessed by governments and scientists to address the climate crisis.
Vanguard is a valuable addition to GHGSat’s satellite network dedicated to identifying methane plumes. Methane is a challenging-to-detect, invisible greenhouse gas leaked from various small sources like pipelines, farms, and drill sites.
Existing satellites monitoring carbon dioxide focus on the atmosphere but not facility-level emissions, according to GHGSat. Vanguard’s role is crucial in validating common practices for monitoring and measuring carbon dioxide emissions, providing direct measurements of entire facilities from space.
Stephane Germain, GHGSat’s CEO, emphasized that Vanguard’s data will validate monitoring and measurement practices, addressing the mix of direct measurements and estimates often found. The satellite’s direct measurement of entire facilities is considered a validation tool.
GHGSat stated that Vanguard’s data will enhance the precision of government emissions inventories and scientific modeling, offering a comprehensive understanding of greenhouse gas emission sources and levels. It will also contribute to corporate greenhouse gas reporting for investors by directly measuring carbon dioxide emissions from individual facilities.
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