EMIT instruments on the International Space Station can clearly detect methane emissions on the ground. (Photo/NASA) After the explosion of the Beixi natural gas pipeline, a large amount of natural gas in the pipeline escaped in the environment. There is no conclusion on how much damage this will cause to the environment. Now it may be judged. NASA said that they installed methane detection instruments on the International Space Station (ISS), which can detect particularly severe methane leakage sites, and as many as 50 have been marked.
Aljazeera (Aljazeera) reported that NASA said on Tuesday that the detector known as the "Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation" (EMIT) was installed on the International Space Station in July this year. Natural gas methane can also be identified by instruments, and it is marked that there are more than 50 methane super emission sources in Central Asia, Middle East and the southwestern United States.
These methane hot spots have different sources, some are huge oil and gas facilities, and some are large landfills. Garbage corruption can also cause methane generation.
NASA Director Bill Nelson said: "Methane is an greenhouse gas , which is more severe than carbon dioxide . The global temperature rise is caused by methane, accounting for about 30%. Therefore, controlling methane emissions is an important key to controlling global warming. EMIT will help identify the source of methane emissions, which can stop from the source."
, an International Space Station 400 kilometers from the surface, circles the earth in 90 minutes. Therefore, EMIT also continuously monitors the surface. Its imaging spectrometer can identify mineral components of various dust, but it has proven that it is also good at detecting methane emissions.
Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) showed the effect of EMIT on Tuesday, and captured the oil and gas infrastructure of Turkmen . From the imaging spectrometer, the gas was quite obvious to spread into the sky, with an extension height of more than 32 kilometers.
Turkmen is the world's largest natural gas producer. Scientists estimate that this Turkmen gas leak flow continues to escape methane at a flow of 50,400 kg per hour, which is comparable to the 2015 blowout of the Aliso Canyon gas field near Los Angeles, one of the largest unexpected methane releases in U.S. history. Although methane emissions are lower than carbon dioxide, its greenhouse effect is 80 times that of carbon dioxide; and methane will decompose itself and will only exist for about ten years, which means reducing methane emissions is more direct in preventing earth's warming.
