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Full catalog/EMITL2BCH4ENH
EMITL2BCH4ENH·v001·dataset

Extra methane leaking into the air (EMIT, 60 m)

EMIT L2B Methane Enhancement Data 60 m V001
atmosphere NASA LPCLOUD Level 2B COG
In plain English

What it measures. Estimates of extra methane concentrated above a location, pinpointing plumes leaking from individual sources, at fine 60 m detail.

How it's made. Produced from the EMIT imaging spectrometer on the International Space Station, which detects gases by the way they absorb shortwave-infrared light, even though its main job is mapping surface minerals in dusty regions.

How & where you'd use it. Used to find and measure methane point-source leaks, such as from oil and gas or landfills. Note this Version 1 was retired in March 2026 in favor of Version 2.

What's measured

ATMOSPHERE › ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY › CARBON AND HYDROCARBON COMPOUNDS › METHANEATMOSPHERE › AIR QUALITY › EMISSIONS

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2022-08-10 → 2024-11-30
  • Measured byISS (EMIT Imaging Spectrometer)
  • Processing levelLevel 2B
  • Spatial extent-180, -54, 180, 54
  • FormatsCOG
  • StatusDEPRECATED

What you can do with it

  • Map air pollutants — NO₂, aerosols, ozone
  • Track greenhouse gases and Earth's energy budget
  • Feed weather and air-quality analysis
Official description

The EMITL2BCH4ENH Version 1 data product was decommissioned on March 26, 2026. Users are encouraged to use the [EMITL2BCH4ENH Version 2](https://doi.org/10.5067/EMIT/EMITL2BCH4ENH.002) data product. The Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT) instrument measures surface mineralogy, targeting the Earth’s arid dust source regions. EMIT is installed on the International Space Station (ISS) and uses imaging spectroscopy to take measurements of the sunlit regions of interest between 52° N latitude and 52° S latitude. An interactive map showing the regions being investigated, current and forecasted data coverage, and additional data resources can be found on the VSWIR Imaging Spectroscopy Interface for Open Science (VISIONS) [EMIT Open Data Portal](https://earth.jpl.nasa.gov/emit/data/data-portal/coverage-and-forecasts/). In addition to its primary objective described above, EMIT has demonstrated the capacity to characterize methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) point-source emissions by measuring gas absorption features in the short-wave infrared bands. The EMIT Level 2B Greenhouse Gas (GHG) series of products can be used to identify and quantify point source emissions. The EMIT Level 2B Methane Enhancement Data (EMITL2BCH4ENH) Version 1 data product is a total vertical column enhancement estimate of methane in parts per million meter (ppm m) based on an adaptive matched filter approach. EMITL2BCH4ENH provides per-pixel methane enhancement data used to identify methane plume complexes. The initial release of the EMITL2BCH4ENH data product will only include granules where methane plume complexes have been identified. Each granule contains one Cloud Optimized GeoTIFF (COG) file at a spatial resolution of 60 meters (m): Methane Enhancement (EMIT_L2B_CH4ENH). The EMITL2BCH4ENH file contains methane enhancement data based primarily on [EMITL1BRAD](https://doi.org/10.5067/EMIT/EMITL1BRAD.001) radiance values. Each granule is approximately 75 kilometers (km) by 75 km, nominal at the equator, with some granules near the end of an orbit segment reaching 150 km in length. Known Issues * Data acquisition gap: From September 13, 2022, through January 6, 2023, a power issue outside of EMIT caused a pause in operations. Due to this shutdown, no data were acquired during that timeframe.

Get the data

emitl2bch4enh_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="EMITL2BCH4ENH",
    version="001",
    bounding_box=(-122.5, 37.2, -121.8, 37.9),  # your area (W,S,E,N)
    temporal=("2024-01-01", "2024-12-31"),       # your dates
)
files = earthaccess.open(results)   # stream straight from LPCLOUD
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.