A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket has launched a satellite that carries an imaging spectrometer developed by the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Tanager-1, the first satellite of the Carbon Mapper Coalition, will use the payload to precisely measure methane and carbon dioxide emissions globally and identify their sources to address climate change, NASA said Friday.
JPL and Planet Labs, which built the satellite, are members of the coalition led by Carbon Mapper, a nonprofit organization that aims to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and deliver significant data to fill gaps in the emerging global ecosystem of methane and carbon dioxide monitoring systems to enable science-based decision-making and action.
With the spectrometer, Tanager-1 will scan about 50,000 square miles of the Earth’s surface daily. Generated data, which will be publicly available online at the Carbon Mapper data portal, will enable the organization’s scientists and other researchers worldwide to analyze gas plumes.
“By detecting, pinpointing, and quantifying super-emitters and making this data accessible to decision-makers, we can drive significant action around the world to cut emissions now,” said Riley Duren, Carbon Mapper CEO.
Tanager-1 was deployed on SpaceX’s Transporter 11 rideshare mission from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Friday.
Carbon Mapper plans to launch another satellite with a JPL-built imaging spectrometer at a later date.