Carbon Mapper, a science-based nonprofit that publishes greenhouse gas emissions data to drive global mitigation efforts, has announced plans for a next-generation methane detection system built with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Planet. As its constellation grows, Carbon Mapper will give communities living near major emission sources the specific data they need to demand accountability.
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A sharper eye on the world’s second biggest climate threat
Carbon Mapper is inching toward the development of a new instrument called the Advanced Emissions Monitoring Imaging Spectrometer (AEMIS) with JPL. Upon launch, AEMIS will improve the detection of methane point sources while expanding visibility into diffuse emissions from agriculture, waste, and fossil fuel operations that existing satellites struggle to measure.
Planet will integrate the same technology into a specialized Tanager satellite targeting launch as early as 2028. Sources say the satellite will cover five times the area of the current Tanager-1 while doubling its sensitivity to large emitters.
Tanager-1, which launched in August 2024, identified and measured more than 7,000 methane and carbon dioxide plumes worldwide in its first year of operation. The incoming system will reach sources that the current satellite cannot resolve, particularly diffuse agricultural emissions that spread across wide areas rather than concentrating at a single facility.
Methane accounts for roughly 30% of the temperature rise the world has experienced since the Industrial Revolution, with the energy sector contributing more than 35% of all human-caused methane emissions. Despite international commitments, global methane hit a new record in 2025, climbing to 412.59 million tonnes.
“There is global urgency to pull the emergency brake on methane within this decade,” said Riley Duren, CEO of Carbon Mapper. “Carbon Mapper is delivering on our long-standing plans to expand the remote sensing constellation that allows us to accelerate our public-good mission.”
From satellite data to community action
Carbon Mapper keeps all its emissions observations publicly available. The organization told Charity Journal that this commitment shapes every partnership it builds, with the science, algorithms, and data platform staying within the nonprofit as the constellation grows.
PSE Healthy Energy used Carbon Mapper data to build the Methane Risk Map, a tool that connects super-emitter detections to the toxic pollutants they release alongside methane, including benzene, a known carcinogen, and maps how those pollutants reach surrounding populations.
As the new instruments begin detecting ammonia and ethane at higher resolution, Carbon Mapper plans to build similar partnerships across oil and gas basins, coal regions, and farming communities.
Bloomberg Philanthropies has committed $172 million to methane reduction since 2019, with Carbon Mapper among the initiatives it has supported. The new system directs that investment into the sectors where accountability has remained weakest.
“Reducing methane pollution requires knowing exactly where it’s coming from,” said Michael Bloomberg, UN Special Envoy on Climate Ambition and Solutions. “Carbon Mapper’s expanded capabilities allow major emissions sources to be found and fixed faster and more effectively.”
Carbon Mapper eyes closing the agricultural gap
Livestock and intensive farming represent the largest remaining blind spot in global methane monitoring. Satellites track concentrated industrial sources well but struggle with emissions that spread across agricultural landscapes.
The aircraft instrument, slated to begin operations in late 2027, will map sources as small as five kilograms of methane per hour. It will operate at resolutions between one and five meters, bringing individual pieces of farm equipment into detection range for the first time.
Achieving the targets of the Global Methane Pledge would prevent more than 180,000 premature deaths annually by 2050 and deliver $330 billion in avoided damages every year by 2030. For farming communities living near the largest agricultural emitters, better detection is the first step toward the accountability that could make those numbers real.
“For the first time, we have the capability to independently verify methane and ammonia emissions from intensive livestock at facility scale, closing the largest remaining gap in agricultural climate accountability,” said Marcelo Mena, CEO of the Global Methane Hub. “This directly connects emissions reductions to the health of nearby communities.”