Artistic rendering of 2 GHGSats. Photo: GHGSat

Methane-tracking satellite operator GHGSat has completed an evaluation process to join NASA’s Commercial Smallsat Data Acquisition program (CSDA). This will make GHGSat’s methane emissions data available for scientific research and non-commercial applications development through an IDIQ (indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity) contract.

The CSDA program allows NASA to flexibly acquire data from commercial providers for its Earth science research and application activities. NASA requires end user license agreements for the data. 

In May 2023, NASA awarded GHGSat a task order to provide the CSDA program with methane emissions data to evaluate the utility of the data. A CSDA scientific evaluation team assessed GHGSat’s data. Now that GHGSat has completed the evaluation, its data will soon be available in the NASA Earthdata portal. 

GHGSat’s data supported studies of anthropogenic and naturogenic methane emissions over land and water at sites in the United States and around the world.

“GHGSat’s unique satellite data and analytics, capable of attributing emissions directly to individual facilities, illuminate a critical piece of the climate puzzle. These insights accelerate global transparency in greenhouse gas emissions, advance critical research, and develop knowledge in the fight against climate change,” commented GHGSat CEO Stéphane Germain. “The successful completion of our CSDA evaluation is a reaffirmation of our leadership on measuring methane emissions with satellites.”