Work

Satellite Insights into methane Super-Emitters: Regional emissions and yearly growth on Turkmenistan’s west coast

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: • First report of Turkmen methane super-emitters using China’s GF-5B, ZY-1E, and ZY-1F. • Methane emissions rose ∼ 7 % yearly (2020–2023), corresponding to gas production growth. • Hyperspectral satellite data matches Sentinel-2/Landsat trend estimates. Methane (CH 4 ) emissions from super-emitters on Turkmenistan make it a major global methane hotspot, yet regional emissions and temporal dynamics of these super-emitter sources remain poorly characterized. This study presents a joint analysis of CH 4 point source emissions along Turkmenistan’s west coast using multi-satellite hyperspectral observations from PRISMA and Advanced Hyperspectral Imagers (AHSIs) onboard Chinese satellites GF-5B, ZY-1E, and ZY-1F during 2020–2024. We identified 38 point sources with 256 plumes across 1078 satellite overpasses, revealing total regional intermittent emissions of 0.60 (+0.39/-0.29) Tg·a –1 . Individual plumes emission rates ranged from 0.37 ± 0.10 to 34.13 ± 11.98 t·h –1 , with 25 of 38 sources associated with inefficient flaring operations. A significant ∼ 7 % annual increase in emissions from 2020 to 2023 corresponds with growth in natural gas production. This estimate of annual increase is consistent with that from multispectral satellites of Sentinel-2 and Landsat. Integration of multi-satellite hyperspectral data enhances detection capabilities, enabling finer plume delineation and improving emission quantification. Our findings show emissions consistent with EDGAR v8.0 inventories but nearly three times that of EDGAR v2024, revealing substantial inventory inconsistencies. These findings underscore the importance of high-resolution satellite monitoring for accurate emission inventories and methane mitigation.

Source: International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation

DOI: 10.1016/j.jag.2025.104975