Methane detection has improved markedly in recent years by making better use of existing satellite arrays and launching new devices, improving airborne instrumentation and calibration, and deploying tower, stationary and handheld detectors more widely. Overall, detection limits have been optimised, coverage has broadened and observation times have increased. Meanwhile, advances in data processing have enhanced both the speed and the quality of analysis.

These advances yield better coverage and sharper insights into the sources and scale of methane emissions. They also confirm that effective methane management requires multi-scale measurement frameworks that combine space-based, airborne and ground-based data, explicitly account for "super-emitters” and rely on dynamic inventories that can be updated as new observations emerge. This section offers selected examples of recent progress in the field that illustrate how these approaches can be applied in different settings. Further technical details and practical applications can be pursued in consultation with practitioners.

In terms of satellite coverage, instruments such as GOSAT/GOSAT-2, Sentinel-2, and Sentinel-5P (TROPOMI) provide wide-area observations. Their coarse spatial resolution means they are best-suited to detecting elevated methane levels over broad regions. Sentinel-5P offers daily global coverage, while GOSAT/GOSAT-2 provide sampling every few days. Together, they help identify emissions hotspots on a regional scale. Sentinel-2 can detect very large concentrated plumes at finer spatial resolution. Other land-imaging satellites – notably Landsat 8/9 and WorldView-3 – and  sensors such as PRISMA can contribute to methane monitoring as part of multi-purpose observation systems. Other satellite‑based detection systems offer finer spatial resolution and with varying detection limits. Higher‑resolution, targeted or regional‑scale observations can complement coarser mappers, enabling basin‑scale surveys and facility‑level attribution of methane emissions. Detection methods and thresholds, quantification and processing methods, and observation times are all constantly improving.

Airborne monitoring systems offer higher spatial resolution and lower detection thresholds than satellites, enabling targeted surveys of fields and facilities. Aircraft-based mass-balance methods and imaging spectroscopy can measure and map methane emissions across areas spanning several kilometres, while operating with flexible flight plans and across a wider range of meteorological conditions. Ground-based detection technologies provide the highest sensitivity and temporal resolution for methane monitoring.

MethaneSAT data continues to yield insights as survey results are processed and released, despite the satellite’s failure about a year after launch. The system measures methane concentrations and uses these observations to estimate annual emission rates.

MethaneSAT provided readings used to estimate emissions from around 23 basins across 16 countries during its year of operation, covering roughly a third of global oil and gas production. The data reveal a wide range in emissions intensity both between and within countries. The highest emissions intensities were observed in the South Caspian basin, while operations in the Widyan basin (Kuwait and Saudi Arabia) were among the least emissions-intensive.

The GHGSat constellation –  now comprising 14 satellites that are specifically tasked to observe a given location – has attributed 8.3 million tonnes (Mt) of methane emissions globally to more than 3 000 oil, gas and coal sites. In one study, coal sites were found to be emitting 47% of the time, compared with about 15% for oil and gas sites. This suggests that emissions from coal sites tend to be more persistent and therefore more predictable, whereas those from oil and gas facilities are more intermittent.

Satellite observations from the Tanager-1 satellite, launched in 2024, and attribution analysis by Carbon Mapper have also provided new insights into persistent sources of emissions. Tanager-1 has a 90% probability of detecting emissions above about 100 kilograms kg/hr depending on conditions, and between August 2024 and January 2026, it identified around 200 highly persistent upstream and midstream oil and gas sources across 56 areas in 18 countries. Pipeline leaks accounted for almost 40% of these persistent emissions, followed by flaring and leaks from storage tanks in both upstream and midstream facilities.

Satellite data is increasingly being used to improve monitoring of country-specific emissions trends and inventories. For example, the Integrated Methane Inversion (IMI) system uses processed data from the Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) to estimate total emissions in 25 x 25 km grid cells. In China, TROPOMI observations have been used to build a complete top-down dataset of methane emissions, identifying the locations of energy-related super-emitters and capturing reductions linked to improved coal mine methane management. In Turkmenistan, observations from Italy’s PRISMA mission and China’s GF-5B, ZY-1E, ZY-1F satellites – supported by independent confirmation from Sentinel-2 and Landsat – suggest that methane emissions rose by around 7% a year between 2020 and 2023, broadly in line with growth in natural gas production. This implies little change in the emissions intensity of production over the period. However, incorporating tools capable of detecting smaller emissions than those captured in this analysis would provide a more complete picture of overall emissions and how they evolve over time.

No single technology can reliably detect the full range of emissions from oil and gas operations. As with the different types of satellites described above, airborne and ground-based systems capture different parts of the methane emissions spectrum. Recent advances in imaging spectroscopy, mass-flux quantification and autonomous platforms now allow for more accurate estimation of emissions and better identification of their sources.

MethaneAIR is an aircraft-based methane monitoring system that uses the same instrument technology as MethaneSAT but mounted on planes rather than a satellite, allowing observations at different spatial scales. It measures emissions from both dispersed and point sources and provides estimates of regional methane flux. Data from more than 30 flights conducted between June and October 2023 across 12 oil and gas basins – covering about 70% of onshore oil and gas production in the United States (excluding Alaska) – were used to estimate basin-level methane emissions. The results suggest that these regions emitted close to 8 Mt of methane, providing a baseline for future mitigation efforts.

Another airborne instrument that has provided important observations is the Global Airborne Observatory, which is equipped with an Airborne Taxonomic Mapping System (AToMS) that includes integrated spectrometers, as well as Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) and digital imaging instruments. One recent study of the Permian Basin in the US state of New Mexico detected more than 500 methane super-emission events from around 300 repeatedly observed sources over multiple days. These events released between six and 15 kilotonnes (kt) of methane, with super‑emitters estimated to account for roughly 50% of total basin emissions (with a range of 37% to 73%).

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), including Autonomous Uncrewed Small Unmanned Aircraft (AUSUA) class drones, can also provide complementary data to satellite and crewed aircraft. A number of field studies have shown that small UAV platforms can be deployed rapidly and flown at lower altitudes over emissions sources. For example, when equipped with different spectroscopy tools, AUSUA systems can provide monitoring and plume characterisation. Recent field validations have quickly improved the use of these tools, including deploying swarms of UAVs to reconstruct methane plumes in three-dimensions (3D). They are also being used alongside open-path systems to test optimal methods and account for background emissions.

At facility and component level, static and handheld tools such as flux towers, optical gas imagers (OGI) and fixed sensors  are increasingly being deployed, with  detection limits ranging from 0.1 to 5 000 kg/hr. Handheld OGI cameras are particularly effective at locating specific leak points across complex well-pad topographies, and the industry is increasingly exploring integrated portable systems that combine spatial detection with direct measurement of emission rates. Open-path and other ground-based approaches, including the wider testing and deployment of handheld OGI cameras, have also become more common.

A 2025 single-blind controlled evaluation of 12 survey technologies confirmed that traditional OGI cameras can reliably identify and precisely locate small component-level emission sources. However, standard OGI systems produce qualitative visualisations rather than quantitative estimates of emission rates (kg/h). To address this, a recent study validated a human-portable mass flux method using a backpack-mounted trace gas analyser capable of quantifying  very low controlled releases (below 6 kg/hr).

While routine surveys can help reduce small component leaks, they may miss  larger combustion and venting sources. This measurement gap has led to growing interest in combining high-resolution handheld OGI with portable mass flux instruments or macro-scale aerial systems to produce more comprehensive site-level inventories.

Separately, a study using a fixed-point continuous monitoring system across 940 upstream oil and gas facilities in seven basins across the United States found that 80–90% of estimated methane mass is emitted at rates below 100 kg/hr, while super-emitter events account for only 10-20% of total emissions over the study period. This highlights the importance of combining different measurement approaches to fully capture and attribute cumulative emissions.

In a recent controlled release study, methane was emitted at known metered rates across five different sites. Satellite, airborne, drone, and ground‑based technologies were then used to detect and quantify the releases, allowing direct comparison across methods. The results showed differences of up to an order of magnitude, highlighting how both operating conditions and sensor type can lead influence results. Another controlled release campaign similarly found significant variation in performance across detection systems under different conditions and emissions rates.

Together, these studies are helping to shape fit-for-purpose monitoring and mitigation strategies. Methane emissions vary widely across sites and scales, and only by comparing and combining measurements from multiple sources can we begin to identify broader patterns and build more reliable predictive tools. Integrating orbital, airborne and ground-based measurements – and controlled release studies – improve both geographic and temporal understanding, but emissions estimates remain incomplete, constrained by limited sampling and processing capacity. A key challenge is to determine the spatial and temporal observational resolution required to accurately characterise both all types of emissions.