Detecting high-emitting methane sources in oil/gas fields using satellite observations

Cusworth, Daniel H.; Jacob, Daniel J.; Sheng, Jian -Xiong; Benmergui, Joshua; Turner, Alexander J.; Brandman, Jeremy; White, Laurent; Randles, Cynthia A.

doi:10.5194/acp-18-16885-2018

Title: Detecting high-emitting methane sources in oil/gas fields using satellite observations

Journal Article · 28 November 2018 · Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (Online)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-16885-2018 · OSTI ID:1544099

^[1]; Jacob, Daniel J. ^[1];

^[1]; Benmergui, Joshua ^[1];

^[2]; Brandman, Jeremy ^[3]; White, Laurent ^[3]; Randles, Cynthia A. ^[3]

Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States)
Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company, Annandale, NJ (United States)

Methane emissions from oil/gas fields originate from a large number of relatively small and densely clustered point sources. A small fraction of high-mode emitters can make a large contribution to the total methane emission. Here we conduct observation system simulation experiments (OSSEs) to examine the potential of recently launched or planned satellites to detect and locate these high-mode emitters through measurements of atmospheric methane columns. We simulate atmospheric methane over a generic oil/gas field (20–500 production sites of different size categories in a 50 × 50 km² domain) for a 1-week period using the WRF-STILT meteorological model with 1.3 × 1.3 km² horizontal resolution. The simulations consider many random realizations for the occurrence and distribution of high-mode emitters in the field by sampling bimodal probability density functions (PDFs) of emissions from individual sites.

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Research Organization:: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC); Univ. of California, Oakland, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231

OSTI ID:: 1544099

Journal Information:: Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (Online), Journal Name: Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (Online) Journal Issue: 23 Vol. 18; ISSN 1680-7324

Publisher:: European Geosciences UnionCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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