In February 2018, a blowout at a natural gas well in rural Ohio forced nearby residents to evacuate. At the time, the the incident received very little national attention.
However, a new analysis of satellite data published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that the leak was far more significant than previously thought. A group of Dutch and American scientists used satellite technology to detect and measure the size of the leak during a routine global survey.
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The scientists discovered that in just 20 days, the damaged well platform spewed an estimated 60 kilotons of the potent planet-warming gas methane into the atmosphere. That’s more methane than European countries like France, Spain and Norway release in a year. They noted that the peak emission rate was twice as great as the second largest leak ever measured in the United States.
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Steven Hamburg, chief scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund and a co-author of the study, said the real significance of the paper is that it demonstrates the ability to take routine satellite measurements and see events that are not normally seen. He noted that scientists will be able to highlight the quantities of methane released, show more where they’re occurring and how they change in time. He called it the “beginning of a revolution” that will allow scientists to focus on mitigation and assessing the degree to which people are reducing methane emissions.
