PROJECT UPDATES| Google partnership will help turn MethaneSAT data into global methane action

Just this month, the MethaneSAT team finished assembling our groundbreaking methane satellite in Colorado and shipped it to California’s Vandenberg Space Force, where it will be launched in a matter of weeks.

Soon we’ll be able to measure widespread methane emissions other satellites can’t, spot problems where other satellites aren’t looking, and calculate total emissions, where they come from, and how they change over time.

This massive undertaking – and the six years and a million plus hours it required – were focused on one goal: to speed oil and gas methane reduction efforts by countries and companies worldwide. MethaneSAT’s unprecedented precision in monitoring methane will produce the data needed to slow down warming, and a new partnership with Google will help turn this data into action.

Key to MethaneSAT’s mission is putting data into the hands of stakeholders around the world so anybody anywhere can see and use it. A long-time EDF collaborator, Google is now partnering with MethaneSAT to provide key cloud and mapping services that will make processing, accessing and visualizing MethaneSAT faster and more actionable.

First, Google Cloud will provide the MethaneSAT team the computing capabilities required to process MethaneSAT’s massive data stream quickly and securely. Our goal is to measure, process and post emissions data as quickly as possible, and Google’s cloud resources will be an invaluable asset. The company will also help us improve our database of global oil and gas infrastructure so emission data for specific regions can be accurately attributed to verified facilities. We’re also working to integrate MethaneSAT data into Google Earth Engine, the company’s own geospatial data platform, which will provide even broader access to potential users.

Google joins a long list of critical collaborators on this historic project. More than 70 experts from leading institutions like Ball Aerospace, Blue Canyon Technologies, Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, the Harvard/Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, IO Aerospace, New Zealand Space Agency, Rocket Lab and SpaceX have brought MethaneSAT to the launchpad. Once its data stream starts flowing, Google’s support will help the world take action.