Tools and techniques to track and study methane

Methane is less prevalent in the atmosphere than fellow greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO₂), but it presents more difficult challenges for researchers attempting to study it. Most producers of CO₂ can easily estimate their carbon footprint—eliminating the need for close tracking. For example, power plants burning fossil fuels know, to a high degree of accuracy, how much CO₂ is produced by their operations. Furthermore, the sources of CO₂ are easy to pin down. The CO₂ produced by burning coal in a furnace is spewed out the attached smokestack.

Methane emissions, by contrast, are more difficult to quantify. Read more.