The Environmental Defense Fund says it will be the most detailed portrait of methane emissions but companies and countries will actually have to act on the data.
Google also said it will create a map of oil and gas infrastructure, using artificial intelligence to identify components like oil tanks. MethaneSAT s data on emissions will then be overlayed with the Google map to assist in understanding which types of oil and gas equipment tend to leak most.
The satellite is set to launch in March on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to track methane emissions on Earth, 'one of the biggest climate challenges we face today,' Google says.