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The authors are grateful to Jason McKeever and the GHGSat team for the acquisition and processing of the GHGSat data used in this study. We are thankful to Dan Cusworth (Carbon Mapper) for the AVIRIS-NG data used in this study. Carbon Mapper fully funded, selected flight areas during the campaign, and processed (retrieval, detection, quantification) the CH4 data for those AVIRIS-NG flights. We are grateful to Daniel Varon for providing the WRF-LES data used in this study. We thank the Italian Space Agency and the DLR Space Agency for the PRISMA and EnMAP acquisitions, respectively, and the NASA JPL team for the EMIT data used in this work.

Analysis of institutional authors

Valverde, AdrianaCorresponding AuthorRoger, JavierAuthorGorrono, JavierAuthorGuanter, LuisAuthor

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November 3, 2024
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Detecting methane emissions from palm oil mills with airborne and spaceborne imaging spectrometers

Publicated to:Environmental Research Letters. 19 (12): 124003- - 2024-12-01 19(12), DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/ad8806

Authors: Valverde, Adriana; Roger, Javier; Gorrono, Javier; Irakulis-Loitxate, Itziar; Guanter, Luis

Affiliations

Environm Def Fund, NL-1017 LN Amsterdam, Netherlands - Author
United Nations Environm Programme, IMEO, Paris, France - Author
Univ Politecn Valencia, Res Inst Water & Environm Engn IIAMA, Valencia, Spain - Author

Abstract

title Methane (CH4) emissions from human activities are a major cause of global warming, necessitating effective mitigation strategies. In particular, the palm oil industry generates palm oil mill (POM) effluent, which continuously emits methane into the atmosphere. Satellites are becoming a powerful tool to detect and quantify methane emissions, but there is no evidence of their ability to monitor those from POM ponds. In this work, we have tested the potential of methane-capable satellite instruments to detect and quantify emissions from these ponds. We have focused on the satellite missions with the highest sensitivity to methane emissions, namely the GHGSat commercial constellation and the PRISMA, EnMAP, and EMIT imaging spectroscopy missions. We have also tested the AVIRIS-NG airborne imaging spectrometer. We report three methane plumes from POMs in Indonesia with GHGSat and two in Colombia with AVIRIS-NG. In the cases of EnMAP, PRISMA and EMIT, we observed substantial methane concentration enhancements over several ponds in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Colombia. It remains unclear whether they are due to retrieval artifacts caused by the particular albedo of the ponds, although the low spatial correlation between those enhancements and the ponds suggests that at least a fraction of the enhancements is caused by real emissions. By leveraging advanced imaging techniques and satellite data, this research contributes to progressing strategies to address new methane emissions sources with high mitigation potential, providing a first step toward the satellite-based monitoring of methane emissions from POMs.

Keywords

Aviris-ngBase-lineEnmaGhgsatImaging spectrometersMethane emissionsPalm oilPond

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal Environmental Research Letters due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2024 there are still no calculated indicators, but in 2023, it was in position 62/358, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Environmental Sciences.

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 2025-07-16:

  • 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: 11.
  • 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: 11 (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: 26.9.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 6 (Altmetric).
  • The number of mentions in news outlets: 2 (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.

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 (Valverde Iglesias, Adriana) and Last Author (Guanter Palomar, Luis María).

the author responsible for correspondence tasks has been Valverde Iglesias, Adriana.