Google partners with mission to map methane emissions from space

Google is partnering with the Environmental Defense Fund to launch a satellite project in March that will collect data on methane levels worldwide. Methane gas is a significant contributor to global warming, and the project will focus on methane emissions from oil and gas plants. The data captured by the satellite will be processed using Google’s artificial intelligence tools to create a methane map that identifies leaks in oil and gas infrastructure globally. However, Google will not notify the specific companies responsible for significant leaks, leaving it up to governments and regulators to enforce changes. The map will be published on Google’s Earth Engine but will not be in real-time, with data sent back every few weeks. This project aims to fill gaps in existing tools for tracking methane emissions.