TORONTO, Ontario, Canada, 5 May 2022 (SFL PR) – Space Flight Laboratory (SFL) and GHGSat Inc. today announced the successful completion of laboratory testing on the GHGSat-C3, C4, and C5 microsatellites at SFL’s facility in Toronto. Canadian based company GHGSat is expanding its constellation of methane monitoring satellites, expected to launch in spring/summer 2022.
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PARIS (ESA PR) — With the climate crisis continuing to tighten its grip, nations around the world are making efforts to reduce emissions of climate warming gases. To track action, countries report their greenhouse gas emissions to the UNFCCC – the body responsible for driving global action to combat climate change. While accurate and consistent reporting is crucial, very few countries exploit Earth observation satellite data to check and improve their estimates. Scientists have now devised new ways of comparing national greenhouse gas inventories with independent measurements taken from space.
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TORONTO, Ont., 21 March 2022 (SFL PR) – Space Flight Laboratory (SFL) has been awarded a contract by GHGSat, world leader in high-resolution remote sensing of greenhouse gas emissions to build another three microsatellites – GHGSat-C6, C7, and C8 – for the company’s commercial greenhouse gas monitoring constellation. A key factor in the selection was the high-performance attitude control system developed by SFL to enable precise pointing of the onboard methane-detecting sensors.
GHGSat has achieved unrivaled success in detecting and measuring point sources of greenhouse gas emissions on the Earth’s surface from space. Thanks to its technology, GHGSat is the only organization in the world capable of detecting methane emissions from sources 100 times smaller than those detected by other satellites by using a resolution 100 times greater than other systems. GHGSat-C6, C7, and C8 are needed to meet the growing commercial demand for GHGSat services and information products.
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EVRY-COURCOURONNES, France, January 18, 2022 (Arianespace PR) — Arianespace has been awarded a launch contract by ESA, on behalf of the European Commission, to launch Microcarb in 2023 on Vega C. Microcarb is a 190kg satellite developed by CNES that will be delivered into a sun-synchronous orbit, 650km above the Earth.
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WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — In 2021, NASA completed its busiest year of development yet in low-Earth orbit, made history on Mars, continued to make progress on its Artemis plans for the Moon, tested new technologies for a supersonic aircraft, finalized launch preparations for the next-generation space telescope, and much more – all while safely operating during a pandemic and welcoming new leadership under the Biden-Harris Administration.
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By Alison Gold
NASA’s Earth Science News Team
NASA will launch four Earth science missions in 2022 to provide scientists with more information about fundamental climate systems and processes including extreme storms, surface water and oceans, and atmospheric dust. Scientists will discuss the upcoming missions at the American Geophysical Union’s (AGU) 2021 Fall Meeting, hosted in New Orleans between Dec. 13 and 17.
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MONTREAL, December 8, 2021 (GHGSat PR) — GHGSat, the world leader in high-resolution remote sensing of greenhouse gas emissions, is building on its momentum to deploy a constellation of satellites in collaboration with the global technology leader ABB. GHGSat’s next three satellites, GHGSat-C3, C4 and C5, will be launched into orbit in summer 2022 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as part of the Transporter-5 mission. GHGSat also announced that it has exercised a contract option with ABB to provide six more payloads for monitoring methane emissions as well as a payload to detect CO2 emissions.
“We were delighted to be an active participant at the recent COP26 conference. Not only did we announce $20 million in funding from Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC), but we also announced that GHGSat would provide the first commercial high-resolution satellite emissions data to the International Methane Emission Observatory (IMEO) to support environmental policy actions. Satellite data is critical for stakeholders globally to take immediate action for a sustainable future. GHGSat is serving this need with our growing constellation,” explained Stephane Germain, GHGSat CEO.
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SWINDON, UK (UK Space Agency PR) — Trailblazing technology that will help tackle climate change and predict global disasters using satellites is receiving new funding from the UK Space Agency.
Eleven UK organisations have been awarded a share of just under £7 million of government funding to put into action the latest advances in space innovation. The majority of the projects focus on climate change or environmental management, with others designed to secure our telecommunication systems and protect digital infrastructure against cyber-attacks.
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GLASGOW (UK Space Agency PR) — The UK Space Agency has provided new funding for a joint British and French mission, called MicroCarb, dedicated to monitoring atmospheric carbon dioxide – the main greenhouse gas responsible for climate change.
The UK Space Agency has provided new funding for a joint British and French MicroCarb mission dedicated to monitoring atmospheric carbon dioxide – the main greenhouse gas responsible for climate change.
Dr Paul Bate, Chief Executive of the UK Space Agency, and Laurence Monnoyer-Smith, Director of Sustainable Development of the French space agency, CNES, signed an implementation arrangement for the MicroCarb mission at COP26 – the United Nations climate change conference being hosted by the UK in Glasgow.
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GLASGOW, Scotland (ESA PR) — In the first 20 years of reaching the atmosphere, methane has more than 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide. Reducing emissions of this extremely potent gas is, therefore, one of the fastest ways of slowing the rate of global warming, at least in the short term – and at COP26, more than 100 countries have just signed up to the Global Methane Pledge, which aims to limit emissions by 30% compared with 2020 levels.
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FORRES, UK, October 21, 2021 – The carbon footprint of launching the new Orbex Prime space rocket will be up to 96 per cent lower than comparable space launch programmes, a new scientific study has revealed.
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by Michael Miller
University of Cincinnati
Engineers at the University of Cincinnati are developing new ways to convert greenhouse gases to fuel to address climate change and get astronauts home from Mars.
UC College of Engineering and Applied Science assistant professor Jingjie Wu and his students used a carbon catalyst in a reactor to convert carbon dioxide into methane. Known as the “Sabatier reaction” from the late French chemist Paul Sabatier, it’s a process the International Space Station uses to scrub the carbon dioxide from air the astronauts breathe and generate rocket fuel to keep the station in high orbit.
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MONTREAL (GHGSat PR) – GHGSat, the global leader in high resolution greenhouse gas monitoring from space, has completed the second tranche of a funding round initiated in 2020, thereby closing its total Series B funding at US$45 million. The company has raised more than US$70 million since its inception in 2011.
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PARIS (ESA PR) — For the first time, scientists, using satellite data from the Copernicus Sentinel missions, are now able to detect individual methane plumes leaking from natural gas pipelines around the globe.
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MONTREAL, January 24, 2021 (GHGSat PR) – GHGSat, the global leader in high-resolution greenhouse gas monitoring from space, has successfully completed the launch of its third satellite, GHGSat-C2 (“Hugo”), which launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 10:00 ET / 15:00 UTC on January 24th, 2021.
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