As part of FLUXNET-ECN webinar series, we had a great opportunity to learn about careers in non-profit organizations through our last seminar with Dr. Alana Ayasse, who introduced us to her organization, Carbon Mapper. Their mission aims to fill gaps in monitoring methane and carbon dioxide so we have more precise, timely, and accessible resources for pollution management. At present, their data is based on airborne mapping across specific regions. However, they are setting the stage for a satellite constellation able to monitor these gases on a daily/weekly basis by 2025. These data are open source and provide accessible materials for decision-makers in order to take actions towards climate mitigation measures.
In the webinar, we were able to go through the methods Carbon Mapper uses in their spectrometer data processing for instantaneous plumes observation, especially useful for methane hotspots like landfills and oil and gas basins. Hotspots are monitored in several regions across the US and several offshore areas.
We also explored the Carbon Mapper satellite project and its unprecedented completeness, which will be able to provide an airborne coverage of 2,500-14,000 km2/day/aircraft and a satellite coverage of 93,000-315,000 km2/day/satellite with a resolution of 30 meters. With this capability, it will provide a unique combination of detection limit, spatial coverage, and sampling frequency. With its public-private partnership, Carbon Mapper is planning on launching two demonstration satellites in 2023 and to expand the constellation in 2025. Their goal is to monitor up to 90% of high emitting CH4 and CO2 sources globally and upload acquisitions to a public database hosted by Carbon Mapper platforms within 90 days of data acquisition.
The presentation was followed by an interactive Q/A session that focused on several topics brought up by the audience. Questions included discussing the ability of Carbon Mapper in monitoring biogenic sources for greenhouse gases, potential of other data sources like FLUXNET and models in coupling Carbon Mapper data monitoring, challenges in monitoring CO2 due to its high background concentration, and ability of the upcoming high resolution satellite data in informing process models, especially at the level of vegetation. Finally, Dr. Ayasse shared her experience in working in non-profits saying that work there goes at a faster pace than in research groups— especially since their products are publicly available. Because of this, the organization also places high effort in making their products accessible and easy to handle by everyone.
The full recorded seminar can be found on the Ameriflux’s youtube channel through the following link: https://youtu.be/Ad-7c00mGc0
Dr. Ayasse’s Presentation is available through this link: https://ftp.fluxdata.org/.fluxnet_downloads_67934/webdoc/FLUXNET_CarbonMapper_Overview.pdf