Launching the first high-resolution satellite to monitor carbon dioxide emissions

Three, two, one… Montreal-based Quebec company GHGSat announced the successful launch of its satellite on Saturday Vanguard. It is the first ever orbital sensor capable of accurately tracking carbon dioxide emissions from industrial facilities such as power plants, cement plants, aluminum smelters and steel mills.

This entire Quebec technology was launched into space on a SpaceX rocket from Vandenberg Space Base in California. We are always nervous. Launching is the first step. After that, the next step will be to deploy the satelliteexplained Jean-François Gauthier, Senior Vice President of GHGSat.

The company must make its data available to operators of steel plants, cement plants, power plants and petrochemical complexes. Help them improve their daily operations to reduce emissionsrefers to GHGSat.

The company specifies that it also provides its data to large organizations such as NASAOr the European Space Agency (ESA) or the United Nations.

While there are already public carbon dioxide measuring satellites in orbit, GHGSat is touting its unique, high-resolution technology that it sent into space in 2016 to measure methane emissions from the oil and gas industries, coal mining, waste management and agriculture.

For both gases, methane and carbon dioxide, the technology remains the same: a spectrometer measures the gas’s absorption of sunlight, with each light absorbing light at a precise frequency. Like a fingerprintexplains Mr. Gauthier.

The new satellite will orbit at an altitude of 500 kilometers for at least five years.

Combating climate change

At both national and international levels, high-resolution CO2 data will improve the accuracy of emissions records, global inventory and scientific emissions modeling“, explains GHGSat on its website.

The technology helps private and government clients understand the extent of emissions in an area, and include them, such as under the Paris Agreement, or even for the financial sector interested in GHGSat. Responsible investments.

It has the potential to be a tool in the fight against climate change.Marie-Michel Limoges, astrophysicist and scientific director of the Cosmodome Museum in Laval, rejoices. This data is recorded from space, and can then be exchanged between countries More effective in combating climate change, It’s glimpses.

According to information from Gabriel Proulx