Using Frequent, High-Resolution Remote Sensing to Identify Intermittent
and Overlapping CH4 sources in Oil and Gas Development Regions
Abstract
The oil and natural gas industry needs accurate and frequent information
on methane CH4 emissions from all of their facilities globally in order
to effectively reduce emissions. Here we describe the development of
requirements for a constellation of satellites to provide frequent data
on point source CH4 emissions from the oil and gas industry. Three types
of sources were examined: isolated continuous plumes with emissions
rates of 50 kg hr-1, intermittent CH4 releases from activities such as
compressor start-ups, and overlapping continuous plumes. The dispersion
model SCICHEM was used to simulate the dispersion of methane plumes and
intermittent releases for typical meteorology in the Permian Basin, and
a plume mask and integrated mass enhancement (IME) algorithm were
applied to identify and quantify the emissions. The precision and ground
sampling distance of the future satellite instrument were varied to
determine the required precision and horizontal resolution of the
satellite instrument. We find that quantifying CH4 point source
emissions as small as 50 kg hr-1 by remote sensing requires a ground
sampling distance of 30-60 m and a CH4 column precision of 0.5-1.0% for
the range of conditions analyzed. Detecting intermittent sources is also
possible with the above instrument specifications if the puff is
observed within 15 min of emission. Plumes of similar source strengths
more than 0.5 km apart can be separated with existing plume
identification approaches but separating sources closer than that or
with very different emission rates will require further development of
plume identification techniques.