Carbon dioxide leak plumes spotted from space (EMIT, 60 m)
What it measures. Pinpointed plumes of carbon dioxide leaking from specific sources, mapped at roughly 60 m detail. It estimates how concentrated each plume is, with uncertainty figures, and is only produced where a plume was actually spotted.
How it's made. Created from the EMIT imaging spectrometer aboard the International Space Station, which detects the fingerprint of CO2 absorbing shortwave-infrared sunlight.
How & where you'd use it. Helps identify and size up individual carbon dioxide point-source emissions, useful for tracking industrial leaks and emission hotspots.
What's measured
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 (ISS). EMIT 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 locations of carbon dioxide plumes along with metadata, 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/). 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 Estimated Carbon Dioxide Plume Complexes (EMITL2BCO2PLM) Version 2 data product provides estimated carbon dioxide plume complexes in parts per million meter (ppm m) along with uncertainty data. The EMITL2BCO2PLM data product will only be generated where carbon dioxide plume complexes have been identified. To reduce the risk of false positives, any EMIT Level 2B Carbon Dioxide Enhancement Data ([EMITL2BCO2ENH](https://doi.org/10.5067/EMIT/EMITL2BCO2ENH.002)) granules where plume complexes have been identified undergo a manual review (or identification and confirmation) process before being confirmed as a plume complex. For more information on the manual review process, see Section 4.2.4 of the EMIT GHG Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document ([ATBD](https://github.com/emit-sds/emit-sds-tgp/blob/main/docs/EMIT_L2B_TRACE_GAS_ATBD.md)). Each EMITL2BCO2PLM granule is sized to a specific plume complex but may cross multiple EMITL2BCO2ENH granules. A list of source EMITL2BCO2ENH granules is included in the Cloud Optimized GeoTIFF (COG) file metadata as well as the GeoJSON file. Each EMITL2BCO2PLM granule contains two files: one COG file at a spatial resolution of 60 meters (m) and one GeoJSON file. The EMITL2BCO2PLM COG file contains a raster image of a carbon dioxide plume complex extracted from EMITL2BCO2ENH v002 data. The EMITL2BCO2PLM GeoJSON file contains a vector outline of the plume complex, a list of source scenes, coordinates of the maximum enhancement values, emission rate estimate, and the uncertainty of the plume complex. The emission rate estimate will be entered as ‘N/A’ if the plume does not meet criteria that are described in Section 4.2.5 of the ATBD. Known Issues * Data acquisition gap: From September 13, 2022, to January 6, 2023, a power issue resulted in a shutdown of the EMIT sensor. No data were acquired during that time frame.
Get the data
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc") # free Earthdata Login
results = earthaccess.search_data(
short_name="EMITL2BCO2PLM",
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. Official links
- Earthdata Search allows users to search, discover, visualize, refine, and access NASA Earth Observation data. GET DATA
- The Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document (ATBD) describes the physical and mathematical algorithms for the product. VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- The technical information in the User's Guide enables users to interpret and use the data products. VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- EMIT Level 2B greenhouse gas science data system repository. VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- The LP DAAC GitHub repository provides guides, Python notebooks, and scripts to help users access and work with data from the EMIT mission. VIEW RELATED INFORMATION
- EMIT data E-Learning resources provided by NASA's LP DAAC. VIEW RELATED INFORMATION