The Carbon Mapper Coalition prepares to launch first satellite

The Carbon Mapper Coalition’s first satellite Tanager-1, which is designed to detect methane and carbon dioxide super-emitters from space, is at Vandenberg Space Force Base in preparation for liftoff as early as July on board the Transporter-11 Rideshare mission with SpaceX!  

This is the first of two satellites being developed and deployed by Planet Labs PBC and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory through the Carbon Mapper Coalition, a philanthropically-funded public-private partnership led by the nonprofit Carbon Mapper. These two satellites mark an exciting milestone to help fill gaps in society’s current understanding of human-caused methane and CO₂ emissions and are the first step toward Carbon Mapper’s goal to scale up to a larger constellation. 

“For years, Carbon Mapper researchers have demonstrated how delivering actionable and accessible data to facility operators and governments can translate to quick mitigation efforts,” Carbon Mapper CEO Riley Duren said. “With the launch of our first satellite, Carbon Mapper and our partners are working to scale up the availability of public data to accelerate emissions reductions globally. By precisely determining the locations of individual methane super-emitters, decision makers can immediately prioritize reductions of emissions that have an outsized impact on climate change.”

Making emissions visible and actionable

The Tanager satellites are uniquely designed and optimized to detect, pinpoint, and quantify methane and CO₂ super-emitters. These high-emission events can occur at facilities, equipment, and other infrastructure in the energy, waste, and agriculture sectors and often contribute disproportionately to regional emissions. By precisely attributing those emissions and tracking them over time, Carbon Mapper will be able to provide a level of granularity that supports direct mitigation action on the ground and that can address the unique challenges and opportunities within key sectors across the globe. 

The Tanager satellites will observe high-priority emitting regions with an emphasis on infrastructure across oil and gas, agriculture and waste. This includes oil and gas fields, pipelines, refineries, power plants, operations with large concentrations of livestock and areas with landfills, wastewater treatment plants and natural gas distribution systems. With the goal to scale to a larger constellation of satellites, Carbon Mapper aims to ultimately detect and track up to 90% of high-emission sources globally with daily frequency or better.

Unlocking the power of accessible emissions data

Once Tanager-1 is successfully in orbit and delivering observations, Carbon Mapper will make methane and CO₂ emissions data and insights available for noncommercial use on our public data portal, which currently has thousands of high emissions sources observed from air and space. Access to this data empowers facility operators, governments, nonprofits, journalists, communities and researchers to find and fix leaks quickly, diagnose root causes for emissions events, inform solutions and verify reductions. Planet will also make early access data commercially available.

Tanager capabilities at-a-glance

• Detecting methane with high sensitivity: Tanager satellites are designed to detect methane plumes from facilities or pieces of equipment (like pipelines or flares) with emission rates as low as 70 kg/hr under moderate conditions (predicted 90% detection limit of about 100 kg/hr). 
• Mapping high priority areas with high resolution: The imaging spectrometer combines high-spatial resolution — 30 meters — with the ability to rapidly image large areas — upwards of 130,000 km2/day per Tanager. This allows for mapping major emitting regions to pinpoint the origin of methane or CO₂ plumes at or within individual facilities. 

Building on a history of collaboration and impact

This exciting milestone builds upon years of collaborative work.

In 2019, Carbon Mapper began assembling a coalition of partners backed by philanthropy. This unique partnership enabled them to combine imaging spectrometer technology developed by NASA JPL with Planet’s commercial aerospace capabilities to develop and deploy satellites that can detect and quantify high emissions point sources (also known as “super-emitters”) of methane and CO₂ around the world. It also combines the science and policy expertise needed to deliver actionable data and ensure concrete actions are taken on-the-ground — all bold objectives far bigger than any one company or organization could tackle on its own at the scale needed to tackle climate change.

For several years Carbon Mapper scientists have been using imaging spectrometers (including AVIRIS-NG by NASA JPL and the Global Airborne Observatory by ASU’s Center for Global Discovery and Conservation Science) onboard airplanes to detect methane super-emitters. These airborne surveys have shown how this technology can gather high quality data needed to detect, pinpoint, and quantify super-emitters, and demonstrated how, by making this data publicly available, we can raise societal awareness of methane emissions and drive mitigation action. 

Now, 5th generation imaging spectrometer technology designed by NASA JPL is headed for space on Tanager-1 thanks to a first-of-its-kind technology transfer from JPL to Planet, facilitated by Carbon Mapper. 

Other milestones on the road to launch have included testing the instrument to ensure it can withstand the stresses of launch and harsh conditions in orbit as well as integration with the satellite bus to prepare for launch.

As the July launch window nears, stay tuned for more details on the satellite launch date and other big milestones!

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