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Methane emissions

Methane emissions

Rebecca Fisher

Rebecca Fisher

I am an atmospheric scientist with a current research focus on understanding the variability of the concentration of methane in the Earth’s atmosphere. In the greenhouse gas research group we measure concentrations of methane and carbon dioxide at a number of sites globally, from the Arctic to Antarctic. We measure methane isotopic composition (δ13C and δD) to identify which sources are changing.

Field campaigns, using mobile equipment such as our new mobile lab (MIGGAS), allow us to locate and quantify methane emissions and determine the source using methane isotope or methane:ethane ratios. We’ve recently mapped urban gas leaks (e.g. in London, Birmingham and Bucharest) using vehicle mounted instruments and characterised methane elevations from Fennoscandian wetlands, African wetlands and biomass burning and North Sea gas installations during flights on the UK’s FAAM aircraft. The atmospheric measurements we make can be used to see which types of greenhouse gas emission are changing and where mitigation efforts should be focussed as we work towards achieving net-zero carbon emissions.

Measurements of methane mole fraction above Northern Fennoscandia showing elevations over wetlands on a FAAM campaign (Fisher et al., 2017)

 

Collecting air samples for methane isotopic measurement close to camels at ILRI’s Kapiti research station in Kenya

 

Making mobile measurements of methane near Bacton gas terminal in Norfolk

 

References

 

 

 

Nisbet, E, Fisher, R, Lowry, D, France, J, Allen, G, Bakkaloglu, S, Broderick, TJ, Cain, M, Coleman, M, Fernandez, J, Forster, G, Griffiths, PT, Iverach, CP, Kelly, BFJ, Manning, MR, Nisbet-Jones, P, Pyle, JA, Townsend-Small, A, al-Shalaan, A, Warwick, N & Zazzeri, G 2020, 'Methane Mitigation: Methods to Reduce Emissions, on the Path to the Paris Agreement', Reviews of Geophysics, vol. 58, no. 1, e2019RG000675, pp. 1-51. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019RG000675

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