Methane is produced by oil and gas extraction, coal mining, landfills, farming, wetlands, and thawing permafrost areas. But what are the exact numbers for each source? To find out, the HALO research aircraft has been operating over Canada – with researchers from the University of Bremen on board.
“Methane in the Earth’s atmosphere is considered one of the most important greenhouse gases, but there remains an insufficient understanding of its natural and man-made sources,” says Dr. Heinrich Bovensmann from the Institute of Environmental Physics at the University of Bremen. To shed light on this matter, the University of Bremen is involved in CoMet 2.0 Arctic (Carbon Dioxide and Methane Mission for HALO). Managed by the German Aerospace Center, the project also includes the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry in Jena and the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich as part of the consortium. “Using Canada as our guinea pig, we want to make more accurate and comprehensive measurements of greenhouse gas emissions, and use the data to improve climate forecasts,” says Dr. Bovensmann in outlining the mission’s objective.
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