Microsatellites: GHGSat-D (Claire)

Greenhouse Gas Satellite Demonstrator – Targeted Monitoring of GHG Emissions

The Space Flight Laboratory (SFL) is designing and building the GHGSat-D (aka “Claire”) satellite demonstrator for GHGSat Inc., a subsidiary of Xiphos Systems Corporation. The satellite is a next generation greenhouse gas monitoring satellite. The satellite will demonstrate an advanced miniature hyperspectral SWIR imaging spectrometer for monitoring targeted greenhouse gas emitters such as area fugitive sources (tailing ponds and landfills) and stacks (emissions such as flaring and venting). A secondary instrument will measure clouds and aerosols in order to enhance retrievals from the primary instrument. The 15-kilogram satellite will be a precursor to a commercial constellation of greenhouse gas monitoring satellites as part of a service provided by GHGSat Inc. The low-cost and high-performance of SFL’s NEMO bus is an enabler for this mission.

From www.ghgsat.com:

GHGSat’s mission is to become the global reference for remote sensing of greenhouse gas (GHG) and air quality gas (AQG) emissions from industrial sites, using satellite technology.

GHGSat’s novel technology will enable GHG and AQG measurement with better accuracy at a fraction of the cost of comparable alternatives. Owners of industrial facilities will be able to monitor all of their facilities, local or remote, anywhere in the world, with a common technology, in near-real-time. Significantly improved emissions information will enable industries to better measure, control, and ultimately reduce emissions of GHGs and AQGs.

GHGSat will monitor greenhouse gas (GHG) and air quality gas (AQG) emissions for several industries, including: Oil & gas, Power generation, Mining, Pulp & paper, Pipelines (natural gas), Landfill, Chemicals, Metals & alumimum, Cement, Agriculture, Transportation.

In each of these industries, GHGSat will mesure emissions from target sites, anywhere in the world. Sites can include: Industrial facilities with fixed, concentrated sources of emissions (e.g. stacks), Area sources with emission hotspots (e.g. landfill methane, pipeline leaks), Fugitive sources over wide areas (e.g. tailings ponds, mine faces), Mobile emitters (e.g. ships).

Each GHGSat satellite will provide periodic, high-precision measurements of emissions from thousands of such sites. Targeting of measured emissions is confirmed with visual imagery from the same satellite. GHGSat instruments will be calibrated regularly, and measured data will be verified and validated against known sources.

GHGSat will provide measurements of emissions at each site without using any on-site equipment. However, GHGSat can augment its measured data with any publicly available data (e.g. local meteorological towers) or private customer data.