NASA investigators along with Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences in Colorado and other agencies are now joining their forces to investigate further an atmospheric anomaly regarding a methane hotspot found over the Four Corners region in southwestern U.S.
Scientists will utilize both airborne and ground based instruments in order to pinpoint the source and the reason for this methane hotpsot in a small area in the intersection of Arizona, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico.
This methane hotspot is also the highest concentration found anywhere else in the world.
According to Christian Frankenberg from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California, the U.S. space agency was among the first to report of the methane incident in the Four Corners region. The European Space Agency's satellite data confirmed this event and showed that this persistent emission has been prevalent since 2003 to 2009 where methane has been significantly higher than estimated.
However, NASA says that these observations are not substantial basis to reveal the sources of methane. Scientists believe that the possible sources could come from from oil and gas related activities such as coal mining and fracking where natural gas can seep from the ground.
Researchers from CIRES and NOAA's Earth Systems Research Laboratory along with the University of Michigan recently launched a field campaign called Twin Otter Projects Defining Oil Well and Natural Gas Emissions in order to investigate the sources of the hotspot starting on April 17 with JPL scientists.
Frankenberg says that these groundbases and airborne resources from all these different groups will ultimately solve the mystery of the Four Corners methane anomaly. Using two instruments from the Twin Otter research aircraft, a spectrometer will map the entire region and a second one will detect the methane sources.
With these combined efforts, scientists and investigators can now decipher and quantify these methane emissions that add to greenhouse gases, ultimately contributing to climate change on the planet. During this one month study, researchers can track these changes and coordinate efforts to eradicate this dangerous methane emissions that can be potentially dangerous to the environment and even humans.