GHGSat

GHGSat is a commercial greenhouse-gas monitoring company that uses satellites and aircraft to detect and quantify emissions at individual industrial facilities. Its systems are optimized primarily for methane, with some capability to measure carbon dioxide, and are intended to connect atmospheric observations to specific sites or point sources.^[1][2]

The European Space Agency includes GHGSat in its Third Party Missions program and describes it as a facility-level emissions remote-sensing mission. ESA reported a 16-satellite constellation comprising a 2016 technology demonstrator and commercial spacecraft launched from 2020 through 2026.^[2]

What It Does

GHGSat provides measurements intended to show where methane is being emitted and estimate the quantity released. Operators can use repeated observations to prioritize inspections and mitigation, governments can support regulatory oversight, and researchers or financial institutions can compare emissions across facilities and portfolios. Target sectors include oil and gas, landfills, mining, agriculture, government, and finance.^[1]

Products and Delivery

DATA.SAT supplies repeatable satellite measurements across asset portfolios. DATA.AIR uses airborne sensors for targeted, higher-resolution monitoring, while DATA.GS integrates selected third-party survey datasets with GHGSat observations. Analytics products support detection, prioritization, disclosure, and portfolio-level comparison.^[1]

Scientific users can request archived or newly tasked satellite data through ESA after submitting a project proposal. ESA notes that access is subject to a quota and that only a limited number of products may be available to each accepted project. Commercial access is arranged directly with GHGSat, whose public site offers demonstrations rather than a standard price list.^[1][2]

Data and Methodology

Each satellite carries a Wide-Angle Fabry-Perot imaging spectrometer. ESA explains that the sensor records overlapping spectrally selected images, which are corrected for instrument response and optics before a model retrieves gas-column density and surface reflectance. The resulting arrays are georeferenced to create abundance datasets and concentration maps.^[2]

ESA reports typical commercial-satellite spatial resolution of about 25 metres and a field of view of roughly 12 by 12 kilometres. Emission-rate estimation combines observed plume abundance with dispersion modelling, site information, and weather data from global models or local stations. Multiple observations can be combined to detect emitter activity or substantial changes against predetermined thresholds.^[2]

Buyers and Use Cases

The company presents examples involving industrial operators, public-interest organizations, national programs, and financial analysis. Its website reports more than 88,000 observations across 127 countries in 2025 and 21 million tonnes of carbon-dioxide-equivalent emissions mitigated since inception. Those outcome and scale figures are company-reported and should not be interpreted as independently audited totals.^[1]

GHGSat's principal distinction is facility-level attribution: broad-area survey instruments can identify regional methane patterns, while its targeted observations are designed to resolve individual industrial sources. Detection still depends on factors such as plume strength, wind, cloud, surface conditions, tasking opportunity, and instrument limits; the ESA technical description therefore provides more useful context than a claim of universal detection.^[2]