Google participates in new environmental work

Google Announces its participation in a new environmental project where satellite reconnaissance will be used to find emissions of methane, a substance that contributes to climate change. However, it is a difficult pollutant to trace, partly because it is invisible to the human eye and satellite multispectral wavelength sensors near infrared wavelengths, and partly because it is also difficult to assess due to spectral noise in the atmosphere.

In order to help research more information about methane pollutants, Google and the Environmental Defense Fund will now collaborate on a satellite project. MethaneSAT is a new satellite project powered by artificial intelligence to better track and calculate dangerous emissions and is accurate enough to distinguish between high-emitting methane sources and small sources spread over a large area. It is thus possible to distinguish, for example, between industrial livestock farming and fossil fuel extraction.

In addition to participating in the satellite project itself, Google will also participate in the form in which the measurement results will become part of i Google Earth Engine. Researchers will therefore be able to combine MethaneSAT results with other map layers so they can find links between emissions and other factors such as the surrounding environment. You must also create maps of the oil and gas infrastructure, so that by combining these layers you can easily find methane leaks in the infrastructure.

MethaneSAT will launch in early March on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and will orbit the Earth 15 times a day at an altitude of more than 560 kilometers.