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Ecology & Environment
Mahesh

14/11/22 21:24 PM IST

Methane Alert and Response System

In News 
  • Recently the United Nations (UN) has decided to set up a satellite-based monitoring system “MARS: Methane Alert and Response System” for tracking methane emissions and alerting governments and corporations to respond.
About MARS 
  • The Methane Alert and Response System (MARS) is a satellite-based system that enables governments to detect methane emissions and take measures to address them.
  • This data-to-action platform is part of the global endeavour to tackle climate change by curbing greenhouse emissions.
  • It was set up as part of the United Nations Environment Programme’s International Methane Emissions Observatory (IMEO) strategy to gain policy-relevant data required for mitigating emissions.
  • This will be the first publicly available global system connecting methane detection with the notification processes transparently.
  • It will use state-of-the-art satellite data to detect and identify notable greenhouse emission events and notify concerned stakeholders. This data will also be used for supporting and tracking the progress of the mitigation efforts.
Objectives
  • MARS will integrate data from a large number of existing and future satellites that have the ability to detect methane emission events anywhere in the world, and send out notifications to the relevant stakeholders to act on it.
  • MARS will track the large point emission sources, mainly in the fossil fuel industry, but with time, would be able to detect emissions from coal, waste, livestock and rice fields as well.
About Methane
  • Methane is a colourless and odourless gas that occurs abundantly in nature and as a product of certain human activities.
  • Methane is the simplest member of the paraffin series of hydrocarbons and is among the most potent of the greenhouse gases.
Concerns Regarding Methane
  • Methane is the second-most common of the six major greenhouse gases, but is far more dangerous than carbon dioxide in its potential to cause global warming.
  • Accounting for about 17% of the current global greenhouse gas emissions, methane is blamed for having caused at least 25%- 30% of temperature rise since the pre-industrial times.
  • It accounts for a small portion of human-induced greenhouse gas emissions compared to carbon dioxide. But it is thought to be 80 times more efficient than carbon dioxide at trapping atmospheric heat in the 20 years following its release.
Source- The Hindu

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