Google and environmental group Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) unveiled a partnership to expose sources of climate-warming emissions from oil and gas operations that will be detected from space by a new satellite.
MethaneSAT is expected to launch in March, one of several satellites that are being deployed to monitor methane emissions across the globe to pinpoint major sources of the invisible but potent greenhouse gas. It is a partnership led by EDF, the New Zealand Space Agency, Harvard University, and others.
Data from the satellite will be available later this year, and Google Cloud will provide the computing capabilities to process the information.
Google also said it will create a map of oil and gas infrastructure, using artificial intelligence to identify components such as oil tanks. MethaneSAT's data on emissions will then be overlayed with the Google map to assist in understanding which types of oil and gas equipment tend to leak most.
The information will be available through Google Earth Engine, a geospatial analysis platform, later this year. Earth Engine is free to researchers, nonprofits and the news media.