CH4

[Lewis]

Latest news on Methane levels in the Arctic region. 

 

 

10,000 ppb CH4 is the same as 10ppm CH4. As each CH4 molecule has global warming potential equivalent 86x that of CO2 over a 5 year period, the CO2 equivalent of 2050 is 2.05x 86 = 176.3ppm. Add that to the existing 415ppm CO2 and we get an equivalent warming of 591ppm. That's the average. This does not include other greenhouse gasses.

 

 

Edited December 29, 2019 by Lewis

[Lewis]

Continuation of man ruining of the earth.

New York Times reporting about oil and gas companies not maintaining their tanks properly so they are emitting large amounts of methane. Contributing to increased CO2 levels.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/12/12/climate/texas-methane-super-emitters.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&utm_source=1500+CWP+List+Daily+Clips+and+Updates&utm_campaign=509ecdfd8d-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_12_12_09_06&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_4369a4e737-509ecdfd8d-84301401

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Lewis]

Methane Levels reach all time high

 

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/methane-levels-reach-an-all-time-high/

 

In 2019, the concentration of atmospheric methane reached nearly 1875 parts per billion, the highest level since record-keeping began in 1983.

 

Even more troubling, 2019 saw the second-largest single-year leap in two decades. However, this figure may change, as preliminary estimates have trended high, said Ed Dlugokencky, a research chemist at NOAA. The final numbers will likely be unveiled in November after a more detailed analysis.

 

[Lewis]

Our current methane levels today over the Arctic and Greenland and Siberia.

 

[Lewis]

New 50 meter blow hole just opened up in the Arctic Tundra. https://siberiantimes.com/other/others/news/giant-new-50-metre-deep-crater-opens-up-in-arctic-tundra/

 

[Lewis]

Scientists studying underwater permafrost thaw find area of Arctic Ocean “boiling with methane bubbles”

 

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/10/09/truly-terrifying-scientists-studying-underwater-permafrost-thaw-find-area-arctic

 

 

Scientists studying the consequences of methane emissions from underwater permafrost in the Arctic Ocean announced this week that they found a 50-square-foot area of the East Siberian Sea "boiling with methane bubbles."

"This is the most powerful seep I have ever been able to observe," lead scientist Igor Semiletov said Monday, using a term for methane gas bubbling up from the seafloor to the surface. "No one has ever recorded anything similar."

[Lewis]

New survey reveals massive methane release.

 

The 60 scientist team on the Multi-Year international shelf study expedition have found evidence that frozen methane deposits in the Arctic Ocean have started to be release over a large area of the continental slope off the East Siberian coast. High levels of the potent greenhouse gas have been detected down to a depth of 350 metres in the Laptev Sea near Russia, prompting concerns among researchers that the discovery could have “serious climate consequences”. As of right now most of the bubbles are dissolving in the water by methane hungry microorganisms but the methane levels at the surface were four to eight times what would normally be expected and this is venting into the atmosphere.

 

At the moment, there is minimal impact towards climate change but this system has been triggered and will be ongoing going forward as warming in that area is drastically increasing each year. When this drastically changes with more release of methane hydrates, we could see a change of global surface temperature as much as an increase of 0.6C within 3 months.

 

A peer review with a more detailed analysts will be released in 2021.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/oct/27/sleeping-giant-arctic-methane-deposits-starting-to-release-scientists-find?CMP=share_btn_tw

https://www.su.se/english/news/arctic-ocean-sediments-reveal-permafrost-thawing-during-past-climate-warming-1.522660?fbclid=IwAR2YAfCn0FgT_Jqnjz5ybIAYvyFI888HzogU70S9-oZDZ2fiZ9tT8uopF2E

https://mobile.twitter.com/ISSSarctic2020

 

[Lewis]

According to the barrow atmospheric baseline observatory, there is a rise in methane worldwide and no one knows why yet. The rise of methane in Russia is highly concerning.

 

 

[Lewis]

At COP 26 just last month, Peter Wadhams a leading scientist on the topic of Methane hydrates, talks about the threat of methane bursting out into the atmosphere that we are currently facing in the east Siberian sea. It seems now that threat is becoming more real each year as the sea ice retreats more and more every year causing the permafrost to melt more every time. Peter starts at about 2:20 in the video.

 

If that Methane burst out, there will be an immediate warming of the planet at least 1 degree on top of the 1.3 that we have already added since year 1850.

 

 

[Lewis]

CH4 ppb for 2021

 

Methane emissions are the second cause of global warming today.

Methane increase by 15.8 ppb for 2021, the decade before it was around average 9.0 ppb per year. The methane concentration has increased by 9.6 ppb between Aug to Sept which is above the average of 7-8.5 ppb. 

 

The current trend is that we will be close to 2100 ppb by 2030, we are currently at 1900.5 ppb today.

 

3 factors that are contributing to methane increase globally today.

-Fossil fuel development and use

-Decay of organic matter in wetlands

-Livestock farming

 

Preliminary analysis of carbon isotopic composition of methane in the NOAA air samples done by the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at the University of Colorado, indicates that it is likely that a primary driver of the increased methane burden comes from biological sources of methane such as wetlands or livestock rather than thermogenic sources like oil and gas production and use.

In short answer, anthropogenic global warming  and over grazing farm animals.

 

All 3 factors are human cause.

 

 

https://gml.noaa.gov/ccgg/trends_ch4/#global_data

https://research.noaa.gov/article/ArtMID/587/ArticleID/2742/Despite-pandemic-shutdowns-carbon-dioxide-and-methane-surged-in-2020

 

[Lewis]

Methane emissions responsible for record-breaking atmospheric methane growth rates in 2020 and 2021

https://acp.copernicus.org/preprints/acp-2022-425/

 

Abstract. The global atmospheric methane growth rates reported by NOAA for 2020 and 2021 are the largest since systematic measurements began in 1983. To explore the underlying reasons for these anomalous growth rates we use newly available methane data from the Japanese Greenhouse gases Observing SATellite (GOSAT) to estimate methane surface emissions. Relative to baseline values in 2019 we see the largest annual increases in methane emissions during 2020 over Eastern Africa (13 Tg), tropical Asia (4 Tg), tropical South America (3 Tg), and temperate Eurasia (3 Tg), and the largest reductions over China (-6 Tg) and India (-2 Tg). We find comparable emission changes in 2021, relative to 2019, except for tropical and temperate South America where emissions increased to 9 Tg and 5 Tg, respectively, and tropical Asian emissions increased to 8 Tg. The elevated contributions we saw in 2020 over the western half of Africa (-5 Tg) and Europe (-3 Tg) are substantially reduced in 2021, compared to our 2019 baseline. We find statistically significant positive correlations between anomalies of tropical methane emissions and groundwater, consistent with recent studies that have highlighted a growing role for microbial sources over the tropics. Emission reductions over India and China are expected in 2020 due to the Covid-19 shutdown but continued in 2021, which we do not currently understand. Based on a sensitivity study for which we assume a conservative 5 % decrease in hydroxyl concentrations in 2020, due to reduced pollutant emissions during the Covid-19 shutdown, we find that the global increase in our a posterioriemissions in 2020 is ~22 % lower than our control calculation. We conclude therefore that most of the observed increase in atmospheric methane during 2020 and 2021 is due to increased emissions.

[Lewis]

Third largest Wetlands in the world (Hudson Bay) just started to pour out Methane in huge numbers this week according to CAMS Satellite imagery.

 

Methane contributes to global warming directly and also contributes to the release of carbon dioxide. It is 80 times more potent than CO2.

 

Sept 22

 

Sept 23

 

 

Sept 24

 

 

Sept 25

 

 

Sept 26

 

[Lewis]

That gas leak from the Nord Stream pipeline has released huge amounts of methane into our atmosphere expanding into at least 3 levels of our atmosphere, this was observed from the atmospheric station of Hyltemossa. Methane levels spiking. This will contribute to our ever increasing greenhouse gasses and its effects it has on our planet with warming.