US: Canada-based GHGSat has unveiled sample imagery from its demonstration satellite, Claire (or GHGSat-D). The satellite has detected methane emissions from an under construction hydroelectric facility in Africa. The company’s vision is to become the global reference for remote sensing of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from industrial sites, using satellite technology.
Claire captures an array of over 200,000 atmospheric measurements around an industrial facility in a few seconds. These measurements are processed to produce imagery showing a “heat map” of greenhouse gas concentrations from the facility.
Claire is the world’s first and only satellite designed to measure greenhouse gas emissions from sources on the scale of industrial facilities. GHGSat’s innovative sensor technology has also been miniaturized to fit on a low-cost nanosatellite, enabling the company to offer commercial greenhouse gas measurement and monitoring services to help industrial emitters measure, control and ultimately reduce their emissions.
The Claire demonstration satellite was developed by Space Flight Laboratory (SFL) of Toronto, which has been contracted by GHGSat to develop two commercial greenhouse gas monitoring satellites, planned to enter service in late 2018 and early 2019.
