But she noticed on the images the distinct marker of a methane leak some miles away, coming from a gas pipeline owned by Wales and West Utilities.
Upon discovering the leak Ms Dowd worked with GHGSat - whose satellites provided the original images - to take further surveys from space, while a team from Royal Holloway University made on-the-ground round measurements.
Currently, methane leaks are detected through routine on-the-ground surveys - a very challenging prospect when there are thousands of miles of pipes and sites.
Jean-Francois Gauthier, senior vice-president for strategy at GHGSat, told the BBC: "It’s important to highlight that satellites are just one piece of the puzzle.
The UK Space Agency’s CEO, Dr Paul Bate, said: “Satellites are getting smaller and more powerful, giving us an ideal vantage point from which to monitor global greenhouse gas emissions and inform decision-making on the path to Net Zero.”
Prof Grant Allen, lecturer in atmospheric science at the University of Manchester, told the BBC: “There is still some work to do to fully validate the precise magnitude of such emissions estimated by satellites like GHGSat, but the capability is already proving super useful for identifying where big (preventable) sources may be.”
The original article contains 629 words, the summary contains 200 words. Saved 68%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
But she noticed on the images the distinct marker of a methane leak some miles away, coming from a gas pipeline owned by Wales and West Utilities.
Upon discovering the leak Ms Dowd worked with GHGSat - whose satellites provided the original images - to take further surveys from space, while a team from Royal Holloway University made on-the-ground round measurements.
Currently, methane leaks are detected through routine on-the-ground surveys - a very challenging prospect when there are thousands of miles of pipes and sites.
Jean-Francois Gauthier, senior vice-president for strategy at GHGSat, told the BBC: "It’s important to highlight that satellites are just one piece of the puzzle.
The UK Space Agency’s CEO, Dr Paul Bate, said: “Satellites are getting smaller and more powerful, giving us an ideal vantage point from which to monitor global greenhouse gas emissions and inform decision-making on the path to Net Zero.”
Prof Grant Allen, lecturer in atmospheric science at the University of Manchester, told the BBC: “There is still some work to do to fully validate the precise magnitude of such emissions estimated by satellites like GHGSat, but the capability is already proving super useful for identifying where big (preventable) sources may be.”
The original article contains 629 words, the summary contains 200 words. Saved 68%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!