The Southwest Has Been Gassed

[kpete]

This map, from the study published Oct. 9 in Geophysical Research Letters, shows anomalous U.S. methane emissions averaged from 2003 to 2009 as detected by a European Space Agnency satellite.
Credit: American Geophysical Union

The hot spot the researchers found, which was validated by ground instruments, covers about 2,500 square miles over the Four Corners area, where coal-bed methane development in the area released about 650,000 tons of methane into the atmosphere annually for each of the seven years. That amounts to 10 percent of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s official estimate of methane emissions for all of the U.S. during those years.

http://www.climatecentral.org/news/huge-methane-emissions-hot-spot-in-u.s.-18156

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Oct 9, 6:45 PM EDT

SATELLITE SEES HOT SPOT OF METHANE IN US SOUTHWEST
BY SETH BORENSTEIN
AP SCIENCE WRITER



WASHINGTON (AP) -- A surprising hot spot of the potent global-warming gas methane hovers over part of the southwestern U.S., according to satellite data.

That result hints that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other agencies considerably underestimate leaks of methane, which is also called natural gas.

The higher level of methane is not a local safety or a health issue for residents, but factors in overall global warming. It is likely leakage from pumping methane out of coal mines. While methane isn't the most plentiful heat-trapping gas, scientists worry about its increasing amounts and have had difficulties tracking emissions.

A satellite image of atmospheric methane concentrations over the continental U.S. shows the hot spot as a bright red blip over the Four Corners area of New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona and Utah. The image used data from 2003 to 2009.

Within that hot spot, a European satellite found atmospheric methane concentrations equivalent to emissions of about 1.3 million pounds a year. That's about 80 percent more than the EPA figured. Other ground-based studies have calculated that EPA estimates were off by 50 percent.

MORE:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_SCI_METHANE_HOT_SPOT?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
via:
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2014/10/9/17530/2151

[CrispyQ]

1. Maybe there's an underground alien base like in "The Arrival."

Tell the baggers that & they would probably believe it over humans causing climate change.