Methane Hotspot Explorer

The CAMS Methane Hotspot Explorer is an interactive map of large methane plumes detected from space by the Sentinel-5P satellite’s TROPOMI instrument. TROPOMI observes the globe daily at a resolution of up to 7 by 5.5 kilometres, allowing it to reveal substantial emissions from localized sources. A machine-learning system trained on known plume examples identifies the detections, which are added to the map weekly. The explorer focuses on distinct, large plumes rather than broad, diffuse methane increases, such as those associated with wetlands.

Each mapped location estimates where a plume began, using the plume’s most upwind satellite pixel, but it cannot reliably identify a particular facility: the observations cover areas several kilometres wide, and a plume may have drifted from its source or resulted from a temporary release. The displayed source category - coal, oil, gas or solid waste - is inferred from the leading emission category in the surrounding area, using emissions inventories; it is not a confirmed attribution. Detection counts vary with emissions, cloud cover and satellite viewing geometry, and the map includes only the clearest, most confident plumes.