Graduate Student & Post-Doc Seminar

Date: 

Thursday, April 25, 2019, 12:00pm to 1:00pm

Location: 

Faculty Lounge, Hoffman 4th floor

Speaker: Danny Varon

"Quantifying methane emissions from individual coal mine vents using GHGSat-D satellite observations"

Abstract: Anthropogenic methane emissions originate from a large number of small point sources. There is considerable interest in developing the ability to monitor these sources from space, but the imaging resolution of most methane-observing satellites is too coarse to resolve individual sources. The GHGSat-D satellite instrument was launched in June 2016 as demonstration for the planned GHGSat satellite constellation, which aims to quantify emissions from individual methane point sources using targeted, fine-resolution (< 50 m) observations of atmospheric methane plumes. We show that GHGSat-D can detect plumes from individual coal mine vents after time averaging of wind-rotated observations on successive overpasses. We develop a theoretical basis for retrieving point source emissions from limited-domain, high-resolution satellite observations of methane plumes, and use it to quantify emissions from the San Juan (USA), Appin (Australia), and Bulianta (China) coal mines.

GSPD comprises scientific talks up to one hour in length by graduate students and post docs, and all are welcome to attend, including faculty and staff. Lunch will be provided. Please bring reusable plates and cutlery to reduce waste.