Washington: NASA sensors will soon help scientists detect methane emitted by landfills across the globe, according to the US space agency. A new project from a nonprofit group, Carbon Mapper, will use NASA instruments and data to measure emissions from solid waste sites such as landfills across the globe.
Currently, there is limited actionable information about methane emissions from the global waste sector. "A comprehensive understanding of high-emission point sources from waste sites is a critical step to mitigating them," said Carbon Mapper CEO Riley Duren. "New technological capabilities that are making these emissions visible - and therefore actionable - have the potential to change the game, elevating our collective understanding of near-term opportunities in this often overlooked sector," Duren added.
Observations from the Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT) and other NASA science instruments will be part of a global survey of point-source emissions of methane from landfills. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, the source of roughly a quarter to a third of global warming caused by humans.
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