Space station sensor maps atmospheric dust and sources of greenhouse gases

Bulldozer on top of landfill An excavator at a landfill in New Delhi. Dumps, landfills and waste sites in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh are huge emitters of methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

Climate Change Scientists are using a new instrument on the International Space Station (ISS) to locate plumes of methane and carbon dioxide, the main drivers of global warming.

The instrument, called Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT), was designed to study how dust particles in the air affect Earth’s climate. But it also has the ability to detect previously unseen emissions of greenhouse gases, according to a new study that analyzed the first month of data from EMIT.

The researchers hope that identifying the sources of these emissions can help reduce them and slow down climate change, especially as greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere reach record highs.