Satellite Greenhouse Gas Monitoring: How It Works and Why It Matters
Satellite greenhouse gas monitoring uses orbital sensors to detect and quantify methane and CO₂ emissions from industrial sources at the facility level, anywhere on Earth. As governments tighten emissions reporting requirements, satellite data provides the independent, measurement-based evidence operators and regulators need to act.
How satellites detect greenhouse gases
Satellite sensors identify the unique spectral signatures of methane and carbon dioxide — light absorption patterns invisible to the naked eye. Orbiting daily, they provide consistent, repeatable measurements across global industrial infrastructure, including oil and gas facilities, landfills, and power generation sites.
GHGSat's high-resolution satellite constellation
GHGSat operates the world’s only commercial fleet of satellites purpose-built for facility-level methane monitoring. The constellation—which includes Claire (2016), Iris (2020), Hugo (2021), and Penny, Luca, and Diako (2022)—is capable of detecting emissions down to individual industrial sources at high resolution. Data is accessible via SPECTRA, GHGSat’s emissions intelligence portal.
Sentinel-5P
European Space Agency (ESA)
Sentinel-5P also known as TROPOMI, is part of the European Union’s Copernicus Earth Observation program. The objective of this ESA satellite mission, launched on 13 October 2017, is to perform atmospheric measurements with a high spatio-temporal resolution to be used for air quality, ozone & UV radiation, and climate monitoring & forecasting. Sentinel-5P is designed to focus on methane emissions and other gases, and the data is publicly available through the Copernicus data services.
Photo: ESA/Sentinel-5P
Sentinel-2
European Space Agency (ESA)
The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission is based on a constellation of two identical satellites in the same orbit, Sentinel-2A and Sentinel-2B, launched in 2015 and 2017. Carrying a wide-swath, high-resolution multispectral imaging capability, Sentinel-2 is not specifically designed for methane monitoring but instead, is designed to support applications for land cover, including vegetation, soil, and water cover, as well as observing inland waterways and coastal areas. S2 complements the SPOT & Landsat missions. The data is publicly available through the Copernicus data services.
Photo: ESA/Sentinel-2
Sentinel-3
European Space Agency (ESA)
The Copernicus Sentinel-3 mission comprises two satellites, Sentinel-3A and Sentinel-3B, launched in 2016 and 2018. Two more satellites are scheduled to launch between 2024, Sentinel-3C, and 2028, Sentinel-3D. Sentinel-3 is not dedicated to methane monitoring, as the main objective of the Sentinel-3 mission is to measure sea surface topography, sea and land surface temperature, as well as land surface colour, with high accuracy and reliability to support forecasting systems, environmental monitoring, and climate monitoring. It is jointly operated by ESA and EUMETSAT. The data is publicly available through the Copernicus data services.
Worldview-3
Maxar
Worldview-3, launched in 2014, is an imaging and environmental monitoring satellite. Worldview-3 is not designed for methane monitoring, but its objective is to support large mapping projects and meet the commercial demand for high-resolution satellite imagery. Its data is commercially available.
Landsat 8 & 9
United States Geological Survey (USGS)
The Landsat 8 satellite, launched on February 11, 2013, and Landsat 9 on 21 October 2021, are the result of a partnership between the US Geological Service and NASA. These missions, although not designed for methane monitoring, continue the Landsat program (started in 1972) objective of repeat global observations for monitoring, understanding, and managing Earth’s natural resources.
PRISMA
ASI
PRISMA, funded by the Italian Space Agency ASI, was launched in 2019. Its overall objective is to provide a global observation capability—with Europe and the Mediterranean as specific areas of interest to be covered. PRISMA is not designed for methane monitoring, but its data supports environmental monitoring, resource management, crop classification, pollution control, and national security.
MethaneSat and Carbon Mapper
Future satellite systems will be launched into orbit in the upcoming years, providing the same capability that GHGSat provides today. Two satellite systems are scheduled to come online over the next two years.
MethaneSat: MethaneSat is a methane-monitoring satellite from the US Environmental Defence Fund and is expected to deploy its first satellite in 2023, with the capability of monitoring emissions worldwide, measuring large and small sources. MethaneSat is said to offer its satellite emissions data free to access.
Carbon Mapper: Carbon Mapper is expected to deploy a constellation of satellites in 2023, as well as an aircraft equipped with high-performance visible/infrared imaging spectrometers with the ability to identify, quantify, and attribute methane and CO₂ point-source emissions globally at the scale of individual facilities and equipment.
Public & private satellite systems
Combining satellite systems for better emissions intelligence
No single satellite provides a complete picture. GHGSat integrates data from its own high-resolution constellation with third-party sources—including ESA, USGS, and ASI systems—to deliver layered emissions intelligence from global mapping down to individual facility detection. This combined approach is available through DATA.GS, GHGSat’s third-party global survey service.
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