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Full catalog/EMITL2BCH4ENH
EMITL2BCH4ENH·v002·dataset

Methane plumes leaking into the air (EMIT, 60 m)

EMIT L2B Methane Enhancement Data 60 m V002
atmosphere NASA LPCLOUD Level 2B active COG
In plain English

What it measures. Where methane, a potent greenhouse gas, is leaking into the air, measured as how much extra methane sits in the column above each 60 m pixel. It also reports the measurement uncertainty and sensitivity for each pixel.

How it's made. Produced from the EMIT imaging spectrometer on the International Space Station, which detects methane's fingerprint in shortwave-infrared sunlight; this is a 'Level 2B' product derived from those spectra.

How & where you'd use it. Used to find and map methane plumes from sources like oil and gas operations, landfills, and other leaks, supporting efforts to cut emissions.

What's measured

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

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2022-08-09 → ongoing
  • Measured byISS (EMIT Imaging Spectrometer)
  • Processing levelLevel 2B
  • Spatial extent-180, -54, 180, 54
  • FormatsCOG
  • StatusACTIVE

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 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. EMIT uses imaging spectroscopy to take measurements of 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 shortwave infrared bands. The EMIT Level 2B Methane Enhancement Data (EMITL2BCH4ENH) Version 2 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, per-pixel methane uncertainty due to sensor noise, and per-pixel methane sensitivity that can be used to remove bias from the enhancement data. The EMITL2BCH4ENH Version 2 data product includes methane enhancement granules for all captured scenes, regardless of methane plume complex identification. Each granule contains three Cloud Optimized GeoTIFF (COG) files at a spatial resolution of 60 meters (m): Methane Enhancement (EMIT_L2B_CH4ENH), Methane Uncertainty (EMIT_L2B_CH4UNCERT), and Methane Sensitivity (EMIT_L2B_CH4SENS). The EMITL2BCH4ENH COG files contain 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 at 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="002",
    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.