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Originally published in Science Express on 17 March 2005
Science 13 May 2005:
Vol. 308. no. 5724, pp. 1010 - 1014
DOI: 10.1126/science.1106644
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Reports

Assessing Methane Emissions from Global Space-Borne Observations

C. Frankenberg,1 J. F. Meirink,2 M. van Weele,2 U. Platt,1 T. Wagner1

In the past two centuries, atmospheric methane has more than doubled and now constitutes 20% of the anthropogenic climate forcing by greenhouse gases. Yet its sources are not well quantified, introducing uncertainties in its global budget. We retrieved the global methane distribution by using spaceborne near-infrared absorption spectroscopy. In addition to the expected latitudinal gradient, we detected large-scale patterns of anthropogenic and natural methane emissions. Furthermore, we observed unexpectedly high methane concentrations over tropical rainforests, revealing that emission inventories considerably underestimated methane sources in these regions during the time period of investigation (August through November 2003).

1 Institute of Environmental Physics, University of Heidelberg, INF 229, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany.
2 Section of Atmospheric Composition, Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, Post Office Box 201, 3730 AE De Bilt, Netherlands.

Published online 17 March 2005

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