The methane-detecting satellite Iris, built by Montreal's GHGSat Inc, is seen in a clean-room with its sensitive spectrometer covered by a protective lens cap.Supplied
A Canadian satellite has begun its long-awaited mission to search for excess industrial emissions of methane gas, a contributor to climate change.
The microwave-oven-size probe, nicknamed Iris, lifted off from its launch site near Kourou, French Guiana, at 9:51 p.m. ET on Wednesday evening. As one of 53 small satellites from 13 countries packed into a European-built Vega launch vehicle, Iris had plenty of company on its way to orbit.
The megalaunch had originally been set for March but was delayed, first by the COVID-19 lockdown and then by unfavourable weather conditions starting in June. Another launch attempt was cancelled earlier this week because a Pacific typhoon threatened a South Korean tracking station.
But for Stéphane Germain, CEO of GHGSat Inc., the Montreal-based company behind Iris, the long months of waiting melted away in the brilliant glare of the rocket’s exhaust.
“We’re so excited to see Iris finally on her way,” said Dr. Germain, who added that he is even more eager to see the data from Iris in the next few weeks. “This has been an exercise in patience for us.”
HEADING TO SPACE, LOOKING TO EARTH
The ‘Iris’ microsatellite built by Canadian company
GHGSat is designed to detect methane gas escaping from
industrial sites around the world. It was launched
together with 52 other small satellites.
Arianespace Vega launch vehicle
GHGSat-C1 ‘Iris’
microsatellite
Payload for Flight VV16
(756kg) 53 small
satellites
UHF
antennas
Optical
downlink
Radiator
Auxiliary
camera
Imaging
spectrometer
Solar panels
Fourth stage
Iris facts
Weight: 16kg
Size: 20cm x 30cm x 40cm
30m
Spatial resolution: <25m
Field of view: 12km x 12km
Third stage
Kourou Vega
launch site
Second stage
Cayenne
French Guiana
First stage
SURINAME
DETAIL
BRAZIL
ivan semeniuk and JOHN SOPINSKI/THE GLOBE AND
MAIL SOURCE: ghgsat; european space agency;
nasa; graphic news
HEADING TO SPACE, LOOKING TO EARTH
The ‘Iris’ microsatellite built by Canadian company GHGSat
is designed to detect methane gas escaping from industrial
sites around the world. It was launched together with 52
other small satellites.
Arianespace Vega launch vehicle
GHGSat-C1 ‘Iris’
microsatellite
Payload for Flight VV16
(756kg) 53 small
satellites
UHF
antennas
Optical
downlink
Radiator
Auxiliary
camera
Imaging
spectrometer
Solar panels
Fourth stage
Can launch
multiple
satellites into
different orbits
Iris facts
Weight: 16kg
Size: 20cm x 30cm x 40cm
30m
Spatial resolution: <25m
Field of view: 12km x 12km
Third stage
10 tonnes of fuel,
burns for 117 secs
Atlantic Ocean
Kourou Vega
launch site
Second stage
24 tonnes
of fuel,
burns for
72 secs
Cayenne
French Guiana
First stage
88 tonnes
of fuel,
burns for
107 secs
SURINAME
DETAIL
BRAZIL
ivan semeniuk and JOHN SOPINSKI/THE GLOBE AND MAIL
SOURCE: ghgsat; european space agency;
nasa; graphic news
HEADING TO SPACE, LOOKING TO EARTH
The ‘Iris’ microsatellite built by Canadian company GHGSat is designed to detect
methane gas escaping from industrial sites around the world. It was launched
together with 52 other small satellites.
Arianespace Vega launch vehicle
GHGSat-C1 ‘Iris’
microsatellite
Payload for Flight VV16
(756kg) 53 small
satellites
UHF
antennas
Optical
downlink
Radiator
Auxiliary
camera
Imaging
spectrometer
Solar panels
Fourth stage
Can launch
multiple
satellites into
different orbits
Iris facts
Weight: 16kg
Size: 20cm x 30cm x 40cm
30m
Spatial resolution: <25m
Field of view: 12km x 12km
Third stage
10 tonnes of fuel,
burns for 117 secs
Atlantic Ocean
Kourou Vega
launch site
Second stage
24 tonnes
of fuel,
burns for
72 secs
Cayenne
French Guiana
First stage
88 tonnes
of fuel,
burns for
107 secs
SURINAME
DETAIL
BRAZIL
ivan semeniuk and JOHN SOPINSKI/THE GLOBE AND MAIL
SOURCE: ghgsat; european space agency; nasa; graphic news
Dr. Germain and his team watched the launch online over a Zoom call and received their first communication from the satellite when it passed over a ground station about two hours later. The successful deployment is a milestone for the Canadian aerospace firm, which is seeking to become the world’s eyes in the sky for monitoring greenhouse gases from space.
GHGSat was founded in 2010, just as governments were stepping up efforts to regulate emissions, and Dr. Germain, who is an aerospace engineer, saw a commercial opportunity in providing reliable accounting from space.
The company launched its first satellite, Claire, in 2016. The proof-of concept mission was designed to measure both methane and carbon dioxide using a sensitive detector known as a Fabry-Perot spectrometer, which can identify the gases based on their absorption of specific wavelengths of light. The company’s key innovation was to create a version of the device that can be flown reliably and economically on a small satellite.
“The secret sauce is in the spectrometer,” Dr. Germain said. “It’s really good at sifting out everything but those few, narrow wavelengths.”
Claire made news in January, 2019, when it spotted an enormous and previously undetected plume of methane venting from a gas field in Turkmenistan. The leak was eventually shut down after the discovery was documented. Dr. Germain said the impact on global carbon emissions was the equivalent of removing one million cars from the road.
GAS SPOTTING
A spectroscope image shows methane gas
escaping from an oil and gas facility in the
southwestern U.S. The image was taken by
Claire, a demonstration satellite built in Canada
by GHGSat and launched in 2016. With its latest
satellite, Iris, the company aims to improve on
this performance and provide customers with
accurate monitoring of methane emissions from
space.
Parts per billion*
610
550
490
430
370
0
125
310
METRES
PERMIAN BASIN
*CH4 column averaged
concentration in excess
of background level.
0
2
KILOMETRES
IVAN SEMENIUK AND JOHN SOPINSKI/THE GLOBE
AND MAILSOURCE: GHGSAT
GAS SPOTTING
A spectroscope image shows methane gas escaping
from an oil and gas facility in the southwestern U.S. The
image was taken by Claire, a demonstration satellite built
in Canada by GHGSat and launched in 2016. With its
latest satellite, Iris, the company aims to improve on this
performance and provide customers with accurate moni-
toring of methane emissions from space.
Parts per billion*
610
550
490
430
370
0
125
310
METRES
PERMIAN BASIN
*CH4 column averaged
concentration in excess
of background level.
0
2
KILOMETRES
IVAN SEMENIUK AND JOHN SOPINSKI/THE GLOBE AND MAIL
SOURCE: GHGSAT
GAS SPOTTING
A spectroscope image shows methane gas escaping from an oil and gas facility in the
southwestern U.S. The image was taken by Claire, a demonstration satellite built in Canada
by GHGSat and launched in 2016. With its latest satellite, Iris, the company aims to improve
on this performance and provide customers with accurate monitoring of methane emis-
sions from space.
Parts per billion*
610
550
490
430
370
0
125
310
METRES
PERMIAN BASIN
*CH4 column averaged
concentration in excess
of background level.
0
2
KILOMETRES
IVAN SEMENIUK AND JOHN SOPINSKI/THE GLOBE AND MAIL, SOURCE: GHGSAT
However, the real challenge for the company is showing that its technology can be applied to smaller sources, which make up the bulk of industrial emissions.
Iris, which will focus exclusively on methane detection, is expected to provide a tenfold improvement in performance over Claire. That includes seeing differences in methane emission in areas as small as 25 metres across. The company is betting that this will put it within the reach of becoming a viable commercial service that can deliver data on a large range of industrial sites, including oil and gas facilities, mines and landfills.
Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, though not as large a contributor to global warming as carbon dioxide because there is less of it in the atmosphere. However, global measurements suggest that there is up to twice as much methane as there should be, based on known industrial sources. This suggests that large quantities of methane may be escaping from leaks or other unmonitored sources and that identifying those leaks would be a relatively and easy way to curb emissions, particularly in the oil and gas sector.
“In theory it’s more controllable [than carbon dioxide], because it’s in pipes and we should be able to keep it there,” said Daniel Zimmerle, director of Colorado State University’s Methane Emissions Technology Evaluation Center in Fort Collins.
Mr. Zimmerle said that companies are facing growing pressure to get a handle on their emissions as part of their social licence to operate. Customers who purchase natural gas on the international market are also looking for assurances that their suppliers abroad are conforming to responsible greenhouse gas policies.
What satellites offer is “the ability to look everywhere,” Mr. Zimmerle said. However, the detection threshold for space-based measurements of methane limits what satellites can see, and the approach has yet to prove itself as an alternative to ground or aircraft surveillance. Where a satellite comes out ahead is in providing data on locations that are not accessible by other means or at times when no one else is looking.
Mr. Zimmerle said that satellites like Iris could play a complementary role in a multitiered global methane-observation strategy.
Chris Hugenholtz, an associate professor at the University of Calgary who specializes in methane detection, said that when it comes to satellite-based measurements, “the scientific community is still trying to disentangle the hype from the performance.” He added that he and his colleagues are excited to see a Canadian company at the forefront of the field and they are curious to see what the newly launched satellite can do.
The answer may not be long in coming. Dr. Germain said he has a full slate of customers waiting for data and a long list of sites for Iris to look at. Meanwhile, the company’s third satellite just completed vibration tests this week. Dubbed Hugo, the satellite is essentially a twin of Iris that will double the company’s coverage and data rate. It is scheduled to fly in December.
Wednesday’s launch also delivered two Canadian microsatellites into orbit. One is ESAIL, a device built and operated by exactEarth of Cambridge, Ont., to track marine shipping traffic. The other is TARS, a demonstration satellite for communications technology developed by Kepler Communications Inc. of Toronto.
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