DATA.SAT

DATA.SAT is GHGSat's satellite methane monitoring service. It targets a gap left by one-off ground surveys and public satellites: GHGSat notes that missions such as Sentinel-5P detect methane at regional scale (thresholds above 3,000 kg/h, 7 km resolution), too coarse to attribute an emission to an individual facility.

The data come from GHGSat's own greenhouse-gas satellite constellation. Each satellite carries a patented wide-angle Fabry-Pérot imaging spectrometer that measures methane absorption in the short-wave infrared (1,600-1,700 nm). GHGSat states a minimum detection threshold of 100 kg/h at 50% probability of detection, a ground sample distance of about 25 m, revisits of priority sites every one to two days and delivery within 24 hours of observation; glint-mode acquisition extends monitoring to offshore platforms and FPSOs. Outputs are concentration maps over facility infrastructure, emission-rate estimates in kg/h derived from plume morphology and concurrent wind data with stated uncertainty, an optional per-pixel abundance dataset in GeoTIFF, and a historical catalogue of past observations. The platform also includes CO2 monitoring capability. Customers use the outputs in the SPECTRA analytics platform or pull them into their own systems through the SPECTRA API.

Uses include finding persistent and intermittent emissions across oil and gas, coal mining and landfill portfolios, screening livestock, palm oil mill and rice paddy methane in agriculture, confirming suspected releases, verifying mitigation for regulatory filings and certification, and financed-emissions due diligence. Published deployments include SOCAR, the National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago, a 60-site landfill survey with the U.S. EPA and a landfill operator, and Clean Air Task Force monitoring in Africa. MiQ's 2024 compatibility assessment classes DATA.SAT as periodic, site-level detection; it does not meet MiQ's 25 kg/h threshold on its own but can be used in equivalency monitoring alongside more sensitive methods.