Scientists working from the ground have confirmed that satellites can be trusted to measure methane, a potent greenhouse gas, according to Chemical & Engineering News. The outlet reports that the validation comes from one of the largest tests of its kind, in which researchers found orbital instruments reliably spotted the gas across the board.
Chemical & Engineering News describes the work as a year-long blind test of methane leak detection, and reports that the satellites performed well throughout. Because the researchers did not know in advance where leaks were located, the exercise tested whether the spacecraft could find them without guidance from the ground.
Coverage of the same test points to its scale. Stanford Report describes satellites detecting methane emissions in a large-scale trial, while Bioengineer.org characterizes the effort as a year-long blind test of leak detection. Yahoo reports that real-time satellite tracking exposed methane leaks at oil, coal and gas sites.