Methane Leaks

Inspiration

We are approaching the final two decades before climate change becomes irreversible. Methane, 84 times more potent than CO2, is a significant driver of global warming, yet major pollution events by the coal, fossil, and gas industries often lack accountability.

Recent advancements in satellite imaging now allow near real-time tracking of methane emissions. However, accessing this data and identifying potential leaks remains complex. We aim to simplify this process, making new leaks more accessible to the public and empowering action as they occur.

What it does

Our tool leverages satellite data, including information from Sentinel 5P and other sources, to automatically identify potential methane leaks. It does this by clustering unusual emissions and associating them with nearby fossil fuel infrastructure.

The user-friendly interface enables anyone to explore recent methane-related incidents, providing key details such as event criticality, size, location, and visual imagery.

We aim to offer a simple yet powerful solution for monitoring methane emissions and empowering people to raise awareness about these critical events as they occur.

How we built it

Utilize Google Earth Engine to access methane (CH4), infrared (IR), and wind data. Identify anomalous methane levels and extract all hotspots. Correlate these hotspots with fossil infrastructure, such as mines, plants, and pipelines. Analyze the connection between events and infrastructure to generate a criticality score. Automate the pipeline with Azure Functions for daily updates. Develop a user-friendly UI to monitor detected events along with all necessary contextual details.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Developed a detection model for methane hotspots linked to fossil fuel infrastructure. Built an end-to-end pipeline on Azure for daily updates. Designed an intuitive, self-refreshing UI that is ready for immediate use.

Built With

• azure-ml
• gee
• python
• scikit-learn
• streamlit