I am an atmospheric scientist with a background in electron microscopy and condensed matter physics. In our group, we use data from TROPOMI on Sentinel-5P and other satellite data to detect and characterize so-called methane super-emitters. These super-emitters emit large amounts of methane and thus contribute significantly to global warming. We work with UNEP IMEO to notify stakeholders and relevant government agencies about these emitters. To do so effectively, we need to quantify the amount of methane emitted, and attribute the emissions to specific facilities. For such attribution, the spatial resolution of TROPOMI is seldomly sufficient. Therefore, we complement the TROPOMI data with data from other satellites, which have a much lower sensitivity to methane, but a higher spatial resolution, such as Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-3. I work on optimizing the amount of detail we can extract from these data streams. Perhaps surprisingly, it turns out some of the tricks I learned about squeezing the best resolution out of an electron microscope carry over to earth observation using satellites, even though the scalebars here are kilometers instead of nanometers.
