methane bomb

This is the sudden release of a massive amount of methane gas, mostly as a leak from an oil or gas project.  The companies responsible for the methane bombs are called super-emitters and their emissions were mapped last year in NASA’s Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT).  This project was to map the prevalence of key minerals in the planet’s dust-producing deserts to aid in the understanding of the effect of airborne dust on climate, but along the way EMIT also mapped the presence of methane.  This allows us to understand the size of the problem (very BIG) and talk to the super-emitters about what they can do to clean up their act and our atmosphere.