See the comments at: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21183793 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21183793, they address your question about satellite mon

See the comments at: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21183793 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21183793, they address your question about satellite monitoring of CH4. The OCO-2 spectral bands were chosen for H2O and for CO2. I don’t think they provide methane information. A successor mission concept, GeoCARB, can get methane as well: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/geocarb-a-new-view-of-carbon-over-the-americas https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/geocarb-a-new-view-of-carbo... Meanwhile, there are in situ methane monitors, and in some areas, spectroscopic observations (ground based) that allow methane source localization. For very new results for the LA area, see: https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/2018JD030062 https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/2018..., pdf at https://authors.library.caltech.edu/96023/1/2018JD030062.pdf https://authors.library.caltech.edu/96023/1/2018JD030062.pdf It is a very cool science/technical problem, with high potential payoff for identifying big sources.