Josette Marrero – UC Irvine

SARP 2010 Final Presentation

Background
•  Natural methane
seeps found in the
Santa Barbara
Channel
▫  Coil Oil Point
•  Mostly dissolves in
the ocean or broken
down by microbial
activity
•  A small fraction is
able to escape to
atmosphere
Atmospheric Methane
•  Sources of methane total roughly 540 Tg yr-1
▫  Geological sources are often ignored
•  Terrestrial and marine seepage can contribute
35-45 Tg yr-1 (about 7%)
•  CH4 is one of the 4 major atmospheric absorbers
▫  measurable absorption features in the VIS–NIR
spectrum
•  Detecting methane is important for
understanding global budget
Objectives
•  Useful to develop a method of CH4 detection using
remote sensing
▫  high resolution
▫  can compare with field measurements
•  Remote sensing strengthens greenhouse gas
studies by allowing measurement at multiple scales
•  Goal: to detect a methane gas “plume” with
MASTER spectral imagery
▫  Mapping methods
▫  Methane index
Measurement
•  Remote data collected using MODIS/ASTER
airborne simulator (MASTER)

•  16 air samples were collected throughout SBC

•  CH4 over the open ocean - 1.8 ppm
•  CH4 over a marine seep - 36.6 ppm
•  High signal seen at 34°24’7N, 119°52’59W

•  Radiance and irradiance spectra also collected in

the field using the HydroRad 3 spectrometer
Field data as endmembers
•  Spectra collected for 4 different kelp beds, open
ocean, grass, pool, wet sand, oil slick and
methane seep
•  Endmember – a “pure” spectrum of a material
or target area with unique spectral signature
•  Data was used to develop a spectral library

•  Resampling - Used to match the response of an

instrument with wavelengths of an image input
file
Detecting Methane: Mapping
•  Spectral Angle Mapper (SAM) - uses angles to
match pixels to the field reference spectra
Detecting Methane: Mapping
•  Spectral Information Divergence (SID) - uses
divergence measure to match pixels to spectra
▫  Smaller divergence means greater similarity
between pixels
Methane from MODTRAN
•  Computer simulations run to model methane
radiance at sensors.
•  CH4 held at 1.8 ppm and then at 36 ppm for the
first kilometer
•  Spectral range of 705-33000 cm-1 (0.3 to 14 µm)

•  Radiance values from MODTRAN were used to

create reference spectra for high and low
atmospheric methane
Detecting Methane: Mapping
•  SID map created with MODTRAN methane
endmembers included
Detecting Methane: Mapping
•  Matched Filtering (MF) – provides the abundances
per pixel of each defined endmember
▫  Linear mixing model
Detecting Methane: Developing an Index
•  Difference between two simulated methane models
Regions of Interest
•  Two ROIs selected from the MASTER image:
▫  Area where air samples were taken
▫  Region without methane seep
•  Radiance and reflectance statistics extracted for
each region
Methane Index
•  Methane index developed taking spectral
features into account
•  high feature – bands 43 to 47
•  low feature – bands 12, 13, 23 to 25, 27

•  Radiance to radiance comparison

•  Radiance to reflectance comparison
Conclusion – Epic Fail
•  Noise
▫  Instrument noise
▫  Atmospheric noise
▫  std dev of .45 W/m/sr/µm
•  Higher resolution images over area needed
•  MASTER band 26 not working
▫  Overlaps with an absorption region of 3.31 µm
•  Interference from chemical reactions occurring
•  Weak signal
References
•  Barnhouse Jr, WD. Methane plume detection using passive hyper-
spectral remote sensing: A Thesis. Graduate College of Bowling
Green State University.
•  Cavanaugh, KC; Siegel, DA; Kinlan, BP; Reed, DC. Scaling giant kelp
field measurements to regional scales using satellite observations.
Marine Ecology Progress Series 403 (2010) 13-27.
•  Dickey, T., M. Lewis, and G. Chang (2006), Optical oceanography:
Recent advances and future directions using global remote sensing
and in situ observations, Rev. Geophys., 44.
•  Leifer, I; Roberts, D; Margolis, J; Kinnaman, F. In situ sensing of
methane emissions from natural marine hydrocarbon seeps: A
potential remote sensing technology. Earth and Planetary Science
Letters 245 (2006) 509–522.
Questions?