The agency’s Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT) mission is mapping the prevalence of key minerals in the planet’s dust-producing deserts – information that will advance our understanding of airborne dust’s effects on climate.
But EMIT has demonstrated that it is also good at detecting the presence of methane, which is estimated to be 80 times more effective, ton for ton, at trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide in the 20 years after release.
Nevertheless, while carbon dioxide lingers for centuries in the Earth’s atmosphere, methane only persists for about a decade, meaning that if emissions are reduced, global warming effects could also be slowed in a comparatively short timeframe.
The device, which is called an imaging spectrometer, has identified more than 50 'super-emitters' in Central Asia, the Middle East and the south-western United States.
Super-emitters are facilities, equipment and other infrastructure...