In September 2022, the underwater Nord Stream pipeline carrying Russian natural gas to Germany via the Baltic Sea was sabotaged by “a series of powerful undersea explosions,” said CBC News. “Fingers were immediately pointed at Ukraine, which had been at war with Russia since the latter invaded in February of that year.”
Beyond the question of “who done it,” a more pressing environmental question has been, “how much methane was released by the damaged Nord Stream pipeline?” This question was recently tackled in a study published in Nature, which highlighted the usefulness of satellite-based monitoring to detect greenhouse gas emissions such as methane. GHGSat, a company that conducts high-resolution remote-sensing of greenhouse gas from space, provided relevant satellite data that helped researchers quantify the severity of the methane emissions. The company also participated in the preparation of the study.
To be precise, a GHGSat high-resolution satellite detected methane being emitted by the Nord Stream 2 leak in the Baltic Sea at a rate of 79,000 kg/h, which was the largest emission detected by its sensors at the time. According to the company, GHGSat was the first satellite operator to detect a methane plume, and the only one operator able to quantify the offshore leak’s release rates.
So just how serious were the Nord Stream methane emissions? According to GHGSat, the study quantified the Nord Stream 2 methane emissions at about 465,000 metric tons. That is more than the emissions from three million cars, driving on the road for a year.
For GHGSat, taking part in this study validates the usefulness of its Earth observation services.
“Using cutting-edge emissions monitoring technology and sophisticated modeling techniques, this research illuminates what was previously opaque: quantifying the greenhouse gas emissions from one of the world’s largest manmade offshore natural gas leaks, and putting it into global perspective,” said Jean-Philippe MacLean, Science and Systems Specialist at GHGSat and one of the authors of the study, which was led by the International Methane Emissions Observatory (IMEO).
As such, “GHGSat is honoured to participate in this international collaboration, providing high-resolution emissions data from our satellite constellation, which captured the Nord Stream 2 leak’s plume source and emissions rates in detail from space, validating the results of the bottom-up calculations from the scientific models,” MacLean said. “As the climate community looks to drive global emissions reductions, this research demonstrates the scale of the challenge — but also the promise of innovative technologies to support policymakers and industry operators to tackle it, particularly in offshore areas where emerging technologies can have a huge impact.”
Worth noting: “The research highlights the scale of the emissions from the Nord Stream pipeline leaks while putting into the context of the global landscape of methane emissions,” noted a GHGSAT news release. “While the leaks represented the largest recorded amount of methane released from a single event, it is a small fraction of the emissions that occur globally, emphasizing the urgent need for scalable solutions to monitor and mitigate methane emissions worldwide.”