NASA Selects GHGSat Data for Evaluation

NASA has selected GHGSat to provide commercial small constellation satellite products for evaluation to determine their suitability for advancing NASA’s Earth science and application goals. The purchase agreement is the result of ongoing efforts by NASA’s Commercial SmallSat Data Acquisition (CSDA) program to identify, evaluate, and acquire commercial satellite data that may augment and/or complement NASA Earth science observations. CSDA is a component of NASA’s Earth Science Data Systems (ESDS) Program.

GHGSat specializes in the high-resolution remote sensing of greenhouse gases from space and will provide its methane data products to be evaluated under the CSDA program. GHGSat currently has six satellites in orbit that are capable of measuring methane emissions from point sources as small as individual oil and gas wells.

The GHGSat emissions data are being acquired as part of CSDA’s On-ramp #3. The ongoing on-ramp process identifies and assesses the utility of commercial SmallSat data in achieving goals and objectives related to the NASA Earth Science Division’s Research and Analysis and Applied Sciences Programs.

Commercial data acquired by CSDA may inform any of NASA’s research focus areas: carbon cycle and ecosystems, climate variability and change, atmospheric composition, water and energy cycle, weather and atmospheric dynamics, and Earth surface and interior. The data also may enhance information and situational awareness related to NASA’s applications themes of disasters, water resources, ecological forecasting, health and air quality, food security, energy, and wildfires as well as NASA’s international development efforts.