A technical assistance mission to monitor methane pollution begins today.

A mission to map and track global methane pollution, a powerful greenhouse gas, is set to launch today after years of collaboration between some of the biggest names in technology. It’s called MthanSAT, a satellite that has received funding and support from Jeff Bezos, Google, SpaceX, and others.

MethaneSAT is scheduled to launch from Vandenberg Space Force Station in California today at 2:05 PM Pacific Time aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Liftoff will be streamed live on the SpaceX website and the company’s X profile. The non-profit Environmental Defense Fund, which developed MthanSAT, is also promising a special program to talk about the mission with leading experts and ‘backers’ starting at 1:40 PM PT.

Methane pollution is responsible for about 30% of global warming, raising sea levels and causing more extreme weather disasters. These gases come from decomposing waste in landfills, methane-emitting microorganisms in rice fields, and, infamously, burps and feces from livestock. They also routinely escape from oil and gas fields, pipelines, and even appliances. After all, so-called natural gas is mostly just methane.

Gas leaks are the only problem that the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) plans to solve using methane SATs. The group has already documented massive methane leaks. It found that between 2012 and 2018, U.S. methane emissions were actually 60% higher than the Environmental Protection Agency’s estimates.

The group worked with 40 research institutions and 50 companies to put together a more comprehensive picture of methane emissions. Performing field measurements directly from the source of contamination was a difficult task, and this was supplemented by aerial readings taken from aircraft.

Methane SAT can cover much more area much faster. According to EDF, it takes about 20 seconds to survey the same area that would take an aircraft two hours to survey. In just 95 minutes, you will orbit the Earth and observe oil and gas fields that account for more than 80% of global production.

The goal is to quickly determine how much methane is escaping and where, so steps can be taken to stop any leaks. Methane is 80 times more powerful than the carbon dioxide produced by burning fossil fuels in heating the Earth. However, its effectiveness decreases only within the first 20 years after entering the atmosphere.

Carbon dioxide, on the other hand, remains in the atmosphere, trapping heat for centuries. Methane is a powerful but relatively short-lived greenhouse gas, so preventing leaks is considered one of the quickest ways to have a significant and immediate impact on climate change.

Last month, Google announced a partnership with EDF to create a global map of methane pollution from oil and gas infrastructure. The company is training AI to spot well pads, pump jacks and storage tanks in satellite images, similar to how Google Maps identifies sidewalks and street signs. Matching that infrastructure with emissions data from MthanSAT can help regulators pinpoint where leaks are.

If successful, this mission could be a game-changer by allowing policymakers to assess how much progress they are making on climate action based on actual measurements of pollution rather than estimates based on companies’ self-reported emissions.

“What we’ve learned from 10 years of field measurements is that when we actually measure actual emissions in the field, it turns out that the total emissions coming from the industry are much higher than what we’re reporting using engineering. Mark Brownstein, EDF Senior Vice President of Energy Transition, said during a press briefing on Friday.

According to EDF, the cost to build and launch the satellite is $88 million. The Bezos Earth Fund helped launch MthanSAT by providing a $100 million grant to EDF in 2020, making it one of the project’s largest funders. MthanSAT is also the New Zealand Space Agency’s first government-funded space mission.

If all goes as planned, MetheranSAT should begin releasing some data publicly by early summer. According to EDF, a complete picture of the world’s major oil and gas basins is not expected until 2025. According to EDF, the data is available on the MetheranSAT website and Google Earth Engine.