The main purpose of this ongoing blog will be to track planetary extreme, or record temperatures related to climate change. Any reports I see of ETs will be listed below the main topic of the day. I’ll refer to record temperatures as ETs (not extraterrestrials).😉
Main Topic: New NASA Spectrometer for Tracking Stealthy Greenhouse Gases
Dear Diary. Since some nations are cheating on their carbon emission commitments, and there are other unknown sources of greenhouse gases, such as methane pools developing out of unfreezing permafrost, we need a big global carbon police force to track carbon sources. Actually, no once a new NASA satellite that can track greenhouse gasses goes into orbit. I won’t be surprised if this new satellite finds greenhouse gasses leaking out of the planet in nooks and crannies that we aren’t currently expecting. Such findings will make even more climate doomists cone out of the woodwork, but if we are ever to get a handle on emissions, we need to know.
We now have a new methane tracker in the sky:
How MethaneSAT Will Track an Invisible Climate Menace From Space – The New York Times (nytimes.com)
For more details on NASA’s Spectrometer Greenhouse Gas Tracker, here is a SciTechDaily article written before launch:
Super-Emitter Sleuth: NASA’s Spectrometer for Tracking Stealthy Greenhouse Gases (scitechdaily.com)
Super-Emitter Sleuth: NASA’s Spectrometer for Tracking Stealthy Greenhouse Gases
TOPICS: Atmospheric ScienceClimate ScienceGreenhouse GasJPLNASA
By JET PROPULSION LABORATORY SEPTEMBER 19, 2023
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory-developed imaging spectrometer, targeting greenhouse gas emissions, has been delivered to Planet Labs PBC. Set for a 2024 launch, it will enhance the Carbon Mapper initiative’s global monitoring capabilities. (Carbon Mapper satellite illustration.) Credit: Carbon Mapper
NASA-Built Greenhouse Gas Detector Moves Closer to Launch
The instrument will enable the nonprofit organization Carbon Mapper to pinpoint and measure methane and carbon dioxide sources from space.
A state-of-the-art imaging spectrometer, which will measure the greenhouse gases methane and carbon dioxide from space, moved closer to launch this month after being delivered to a clean room at Planet Labs PBC (Planet) in San Francisco.
Designed and constructed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California, this science instrument will be part of an effort led by the nonprofit Carbon Mapper organization to collect data on greenhouse gas point-source emissions. Built around technologies developed for NASA airborne campaigns and space missions, the Carbon Mapper imaging spectrometer will provide targeted data on “super-emitters” – the small percentage of individual sources responsible for a significant fraction of global methane and carbon dioxide emissions.
The imaging spectrometer, which will measure the greenhouse gases methane and carbon dioxide, sits at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in August, before shipment to Planet Labs PBC in San Francisco. The instrument will be integrated into a Tanager satellite over the next few months. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Carbon Mapper Coalition and Functionality
The Carbon Mapper coalition is a public-private effort led by the Carbon Mapper organization and its partners, including JPL, Planet, the California Air Resources Board, Rocky Mountain Institute, Arizona State University, and the University of Arizona.
The instrument is an advanced imaging spectrometer that measures hundreds of wavelengths of light reflected by the Earth’s surface and absorbed by gases in the planet’s atmosphere. Different compounds – including methane and carbon dioxide – absorb different wavelengths of light, leaving a spectral “fingerprint” that the imaging spectrometer can identify. These infrared fingerprints, invisible to the human eye, can pinpoint and quantify strong greenhouse gas emissions and accelerate potential mitigation efforts.
A technician slides the imaging spectrometer, which will measure methane and carbon dioxide from Earth orbit, into a thermal vacuum test chamber at JPL in July. Engineers use the chamber to subject the spectrometer to the extreme temperatures it will encounter in the vacuum of space. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Instrument Integration and Testing
On September 12, the spectrometer was delivered to Planet, where it is slated for integration into a Tanager satellite designed by the company. This is expected to take the next few months. The launch is scheduled for early 2024.
Prior to its departure from JPL, the spectrometer was put through a series of critical tests to ensure that it could withstand the rigors of launch and the harsh conditions of space. Engineers subjected the spectrometer to intense vibrations similar to what it will endure atop a rocket blasting into orbit, as well as to the extreme temperatures it will experience in the vacuum of space.
Engineers prepare the imaging spectrometer – part of an effort led by the nonprofit Carbon Mapper to monitor greenhouse gas emissions – for vibration testing at JPL. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
There was also an opportunity to use a sample of methane to test the completed instrument while it was in a vacuum chamber at JPL. The test was successful, with the imaging spectrometer producing a clear spectral fingerprint of methane.
Reactions and Future Endeavors
“We are thrilled to see the exceptional quality of the methane spectral signature recorded. This bodes well for the space measurement soon to follow,” said Robert Green, the instrument scientist at JPL.
“This delivery is a very exciting step for us as our team can now begin the final stage in satellite integration,” said Jeff Guido, senior director of new missions at Planet. “This milestone is an excellent example of the innovative ways that government, philanthropy, and industry can play to each other’s strengths to build exceptional capability that has the potential for global impact.”
This spectral “fingerprint” of methane was produced from data taken during a test of the imaging spectrometer at JPL. Part of an effort led by the nonprofit Carbon Mapper, the state-of-the-art instrument measures hundreds of wavelengths of light reflected by Earth’s surface and absorbed by gases in the atmosphere. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The new satellite is part of a broader effort by Carbon Mapper to survey the globe for point-source emissions of methane and carbon dioxide. That effort includes using measurements provided by an instrument already in orbit: NASA’s Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation, or EMIT, an imaging spectrometer developed by JPL and installed on the International Space Station. A second imaging spectrometer is being built by Planet in collaboration with JPL. The teams will continue working side by side to deliver these new greenhouse gas measurement capabilities.
An engineer prepares the imaging spectrometer instrument for testing in a thermal vacuum chamber at JPL. The instrument will be part of an effort led by the nonprofit Carbon Mapper organization to collect data on greenhouse gas point-source emissions. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
More About the Project
Carbon Mapper is a nonprofit organization focused on facilitating timely action to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. Its mission is to fill gaps in the emerging global ecosystem of methane and carbon dioxide monitoring systems by delivering data at facility scale that is precise, timely, and accessible to empower science-based decision-making and action. The organization is leading the development of the Carbon Mapper constellation of satellites supported by a public-private partnership composed of Planet Labs PBC, JPL, the California Air Resources Board, the University of Arizona, Arizona State University, and RMI, with funding from High Tide Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, and other philanthropic donors.
Here are more “ETs” recorded from around the planet the last couple of days, their consequences, and some extreme temperature outlooks, as well as any extreme precipitation reports:
Here is More Climate News from Wednesday:
(As usual, this will be a fluid post in which more information gets added during the day as it crosses my radar, crediting all who have put it on-line. Items will be archived on this site for posterity. In most instances click on the pictures of each tweet to see each article. The most noteworthy items will be listed first.)