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Analysis of institutional authors

Gorroño, JCorresponding AuthorGuanter, LAuthor

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October 28, 2024
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Understanding the potential of Sentinel-2 for monitoring methane point emissions

Publicated to:Atmospheric Measurement Techniques. 16 (1): 89-107 - 2023-01-10 16(1), DOI: 10.5194/amt-16-89-2023

Authors: Gorrono, Javier; Varon, Daniel J; Irakulis-Loitxate, Itziar; Guanter, Luis

Affiliations

Environm Def Fund, Reguliersgracht 79 - Author
Harvard Univ, Sch Engn & Appl Sci - Author
United Nations Environm Programme - Author
Univ Politecn Valencia, Res Inst Water & Environm Engn IIAMA - Author

Abstract

The use of satellite instruments to detect and quantify methane emissions from fossil fuel production activities is highly beneficial to support climate change mitigation. Different hyperspectral and multispectral satellite sensors have recently shown potential to detect and quantify point-source emissions from space. The Sentinel-2 (S2) mission, despite its limited spectral design, supports the detection of large emissions with global coverage and high revisit frequency thanks to coarse spectral coverage of methane absorption lines in the shortwave infrared. Validation of S2 methane retrieval algorithms is instrumental in accelerating the development of a systematic and global monitoring system for methane point sources. Here, we develop a benchmarking framework for such validation. We first develop a methodology to generate simulated S2 datasets including methane point-source plumes. These benchmark datasets have been created for scenes in three oil and gas basins (Hassi Messaoud, Algeria; Korpeje, Turkmenistan; Permian Basin, USA) under different scene heterogeneity conditions and for simulated methane plumes with different spatial distributions. We use the simulated methane plumes to validate the retrieval for different flux rate levels and define a minimum detection threshold for each case study. The results suggest that for homogeneous and temporally invariant surfaces, the detection limit of the proposed S2 methane retrieval ranges from 1000 to 2000 kg h-1, whereas for areas with large surface heterogeneity and temporal variations, the retrieval can only detect plumes in excess of 500 kg h-1. The different sources of uncertainty in the flux rate estimates have also been examined. Dominant quantification errors are either wind-related or plume mask-related, depending on the surface type. Uncertainty in wind speed, both in the 10 m wind (U10) and in mapping U10 to the effective wind (Ueff) driving plume transport, is the dominant source of error for quantifying individual plumes in homogeneous scenes. For heterogeneous and temporally variant scenes, the surface structure underlying the methane plume affects the plume masking and can become a dominant source of uncertainty.

Keywords

Atmospheric methaneCanadaClimate changeLibradtran software packageMethaneMonitoringOilPlumesPollutant sourceQuantifying methaneRadiative-transfer calculationsResolutionSatellite missionSatellite sensorSatellite-observationsScaleSentinelSpatial distribution

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal Atmospheric Measurement Techniques due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency Scopus (SJR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2023, it was in position , thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Atmospheric Science.

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from World Citations provided by WoS (ESI, Clarivate), it yields a value for the citation normalization relative to the expected citation rate of: 3.86. This indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: ESI Nov 14, 2024)

This information is reinforced by other indicators of the same type, which, although dynamic over time and dependent on the set of average global citations at the time of their calculation, consistently position the work at some point among the top 50% most cited in its field:

  • Weighted Average of Normalized Impact by the Scopus agency: 2.73 (source consulted: FECYT Feb 2024)
  • Field Citation Ratio (FCR) from Dimensions: 12.98 (source consulted: Dimensions Jul 2025)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-07-17, the following number of citations:

  • WoS: 19
  • Scopus: 15

Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-07-17:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 65.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 68 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 43.45.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 51 (Altmetric).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • The work has been submitted to a journal whose editorial policy allows open Open Access publication.

Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: France; Netherlands; United States of America.

There is a significant leadership presence as some of the institution’s authors appear as the first or last signer, detailed as follows: First Author (Gorroño Viñegla, Javier) and Last Author (Guanter Palomar, Luis María).

the author responsible for correspondence tasks has been Gorroño Viñegla, Javier.