Offshore methane detection and quantification from space using sun glint measurements with the GHGSat constellation

​​​​​​​The ability to detect and quantify methane emissions from offshore platforms is of considerable interest in providing actionable feedback to industrial operators. While satellites offer a distinctive advantage for remote sensing of offshore platforms which may otherwise be difficult to reach, offshore measurements of methane from satellite instruments in the shortwave infrared are challenging due to the low levels of diffuse sunlight reflected from water surfaces. Here, we use the GHGSat satellite constellation in a sun glint configuration to detect and quantify methane emissions from offshore targets around the world. We present a variety of examples of offshore methane plumes, including the largest single emission at (84 000 ± 24 000) kg h−1 observed by GHGSat from the Nord Stream 2 pipeline leak in 2022 and the smallest offshore emission measured from space at (180 ± 130) kg h−1 in the Gulf of Mexico. In addition, we provide an overview of the constellation's offshore measurement capabilities. We measure a median column precision of 2.1 % of the background methane column density and estimate a detection limit, from analytical modelling and orbital simulations, that varies between 160 and 600 kg h−1 depending on the latitude and season.</p

Performance on the Frontal Assessment Battery is sensitive to frontal lobe damage in stroke patients

Background: The Frontal Assessment Battery (FAB) is a brief battery of six neuropsychological tasks designed to assess frontal lobe function at bedside [Neurology 55:1621-1626, 2000]. The six FAB tasks explore cognitive and behavioral domains that are thought to be under the control of the frontal lobes, most notably conceptualization and abstract reasoning, lexical verbal fluency and mental flexibility, motor programming and executive control of action, self-regulation and resistance to interference, inhibitory control, and environmental autonomy. Methods: We examined the sensitivity of performance on the FAB to frontal lobe damage in right-hemisphere-damaged first-ever stroke patients based on voxel-based lesion-behavior mapping. Results: Voxel-based lesion-behavior mapping of FAB performance revealed that the integrity of the right anterior insula (BA13) is crucial for the FAB global composite score, for the FAB conceptualization score, as well as for the FAB inhibitory control score. Furthermore, the FAB conceptualization and mental flexibility scores were sensitive to damage of the right middle frontal gyrus (MFG; BA9). Finally, the FAB inhibitory control score was sensitive to damage of the right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG; BA44/45). Conclusions: These findings indicate that several FAB scores (including composite and item scores) provide valid measures of right hemispheric lateral frontal lobe dysfunction, specifically of focal lesions near the anterior insula, in the MFG and in the IFG

Surface response to rain events throughout the West African monsoon

This study analyses the response of the continental surface to rain events, taking advantage of the long-term near-surface measurements over different vegetation types at different latitudes, acquired during the African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analysis (AMMA) by the AMMA-CATCH observing system. The simulated surface response by nine land surface models involved in AMMA Land Model Intercomparison Project (ALMIP), is compared to the observations. The surface response, described via the evaporative fraction (EF), evolves in two steps: the immediate surface response (corresponding to an increase of EF occurring immediately after the rain) and the surface recovery (characterized by a decrease of EF over several days after the rain). It is shown that, for all the experimental sites, the immediate surface response is mainly dependent on the soil moisture content and the recovery period follows an exponential relationship whose rate is strongly dependent on the vegetation type (from 1 day over bare soil to 70 days over forest) and plant functional type (below and above 10 days for annual and perennial plants, respectively). The ALMIP model ensemble depicts a broad range of relationships between EF and soil moisture, with the worst results for the drier sites (high latitudes). The land surface models tend to simulate a realistic surface recovery for vegetated sites, but a slower and more variable EF decrease is simulated over bare soil than observed

SEtHyS_Savannah: A multiple source land surface model applied to Sahelian landscapes

The existing SEtHyS SVAT model was developed further to model heat and water fluxes over savannah landscapes with the final objective to use remote sensing for regionalization and monitoring at larger scale. This new development incorporates two vegetation layers (low and high covers) above the soil. The transfer of soil water was revised in order to improve the simulated hydrology over Sahelian and semi-arid regions, by incorporating a mulch representation in a three-layer soil scheme. The two versions of the model, original and modified, have been compared at local scale over two instrumented local sites of the AMMA-Niger supersite: a fallow and a millet field equipped with surface flux, soil moisture and vegetation measurements. After calibration of the model parameters using the Multiobjective Calibration Iterative Process (MCIP) methodology on the 2005 dataset, the simulations of the two versions of SEtHyS were compared to observations over 2006. Significant differences were found between the simulations, and a better agreement with in situ measurements was observed for the new model. These differences are discussed in relation to the parameterizations of the hydrological and vegetation processes. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Water and energy budgets simulation over the AMMA-Niger super-site spatially constrained with remote sensing data

The SEtHyS_Savannah model [Saux-Picart et al., submitted for publication. SEtHyS_Savannah: a multiple source land surface model applied to sahelian landscapes. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology] was developed as an extension of the SEtHyS land surface model to simulate the water and energy fluxes over dry savannah landscapes. The vegetation cover is represented by a two layer model and a mulch approach is used for the soil description. The SEtHyS_Savannah model was regionalized over the AMMA-Niger super-site (about 50 km by 40 km), with the help of remote sensing data. The model uses a regular 1km grid and each cell is divided in sub-grid patches in order to represent land cover and soil heterogeneities (tile approach). The vegetation cover parameters were prescribed according to the land cover map and the seasonal evolution of the Leaf Area Index (LAI), both derived from SPOT-HRV (Satellite Pour l'Observation de la Terre - High Resolution Visible) data imagery. The atmospheric forcing was assumed homogeneous over the area and provided by a meteorological station installed at the Fakara experimental site. The surface water and energy budgets were simulated over a one-year period (2005) at a 5-min time step and validated against MSG-SEVIRI (Meteosat Second Generation - Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infra-red Imager) land surface temperature and ENVISAT-ASAR (ENVIronnement SATellite - Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar) soil humidity products. The results show realistic surface fluxes and good agreement with the MSG-SEVIRI temperature observations. The soil moisture comparison presents significant correlation but large root mean square errors. These discrepancies are the consequence of both the use of a non-spatialized atmospheric forcing and to residual vegetation effects on the radar signal. Despite these uncertainties, the results increase confidence in the model representation of Sahelian soil-vegetation processes and open new perspectives to quantify the effects of vegetation changes on evapotranspiration and runoff over the region. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved