Methane Emissions

Methane Emissions is Sensing Atmospheric Intelligence's satellite service for detecting and quantifying methane (CH4) emissions from individual onshore industrial facilities such as pipelines, oil and gas sites and coal mines, without permits, site access or downtime. It runs on the company's own GESat GEN1 satellite, launched in January 2025: a small satellite carrying a short-wave infrared (SWIR) camera based on a Fizeau interferometer (1625–1660 nm, 50 m ground sampling distance). Sensing's own processing chain turns the observations into two products: concentration maps showing methane plumes over high-resolution imagery, each with a GeoTIFF of per-pixel concentrations, and facility-level emission rates calculated with a CEOS-compliant methodology. GEN1 detects leaks from about 100 kg/h, and emissions are attributed to the source equipment. Where cloud or darkness prevents quantification, GESat data is fused with SAR imagery so that monitoring continues.

The service is sold at three levels: persistent monthly site monitoring at €500 per scan per site (PLUM Starter subscription, 72-hour delivery SLA), on-demand crisis tasking at €1,000 per scan with no subscription (24-hour SLA), and access to an archive of more than 1,000 validated concentration maps and emission-rate products. Sensing reports more than 260 industrial sites monitored worldwide and quantification accuracy above 97% in blind testing. Data is available through an API and in STAC and GeoJSON formats. GESat GEN1 is recognised as an emerging Copernicus Contributing Mission; a hyperspectral GEN2 satellite, planned for launch in late 2027 to early 2028, is designed to quantify emissions below 50 kg/h onshore and offshore.