Case Study | Waste & Landfill | North America
Landfill Methane Emissions Satellite Monitoring: What 697 Observations Across 60 Sites Revealed About Your EPA Models
GHGSat partnered with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and a leading North American landfill operator to conduct the largest-ever high-resolution satellite survey of landfill methane emissions in North America. What the data showed about EPA model accuracy, gas collection performance, and real-world emissions variability is not what most operators expected. Download the case study to find out.
What You’ll Find in the Case Study
This is the evidence behind a shift in how landfill methane emissions should be measured, reported, and managed. Download it to see:
- The full comparison between satellite-measured emissions and EPA FOD and CEA model outputs including the correlation coefficient that quantifies how well the models predicted real-world site performance
- What the data showed about gas collection efficiency across 25 landfills monitored monthly for 12 months and how satellite measurements diverged from operator-reported figures
- Why emissions continued outside active operating hours and what that means for operators who time their monitoring programs around operational schedules
- How emission rates varied across the 60 sites and what factors—environmental, operational, and infrastructural—the data suggests are driving that variability
- What a multi-tier monitoring strategy that integrates satellite data with ground-based and meteorological inputs looks like in practice and why it outperforms any single-method approach
Why This Matters for Waste Sector Operators and Regulators Right Now
Landfill methane is the third-largest methane source globally. Regulatory scrutiny of waste sector emissions is increasing. And the gap between what operators report and what satellites measure is now a documented, peer-reviewed reality. For operators, the question is whether your current reporting reflects what your facilities are actually emitting. For regulators, it is whether model-based inventories are an adequate foundation for compliance and policy frameworks when direct measurement data is available and scalable.
