“Biggest Pillars Ever” – Wel.nl

NASA has found as many as 50 super methane ejectors from space. Some were not yet known. This relates to oil and gas facilities in the United States, Iran and Turkmenistan, among other countries.

The US space agency was able to record methane with an imaging spectrophotometer hanging under the International Space Station and is actually intended to study the effect of dust in the atmosphere on climate change.

Methane is the second most important greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide. But where carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere for centuries, methane has disappeared after about ten years. By reducing methane emissions, you can therefore affect the climate faster.

So NASA sees great opportunities in reducing methane emissions from these super emitters. “Reducing methane emissions is the key to limiting global warming,” said Space Agency CEO Bill Nelson.

Ultra-high energy emitters are mainly found in Central Asia, the Middle East, and the southwestern United States. Methane is released during agriculture, fossil fuel production, and waste processing.

For example, a methane cloud about 5 km in length was discovered in a landfill south of Tehran. At an oil and gas facility in Turkmenistan, 12 methane plumes were observed, some up to 30 kilometers long. And in the US state of New Mexico, an oil field caused the formation of a 3-kilometre-long methane column. “Some of the methane plumes are among the largest ever seen,” researcher Andrew Thorpe told Reuters news agency.