GHGSat investment backs Japan’s satellite methane monitoring project
Envisioned system for identifying GHG emission sources using IBUKI GW and GHGSat’s satellite constellation (AI-generated)
Mitsubishi Electric, the Japanese manufacturer that helped develop the country’s IBUKI GW observation satellite, has invested in GHGSat alongside Japanese lender MUFG Bank and London-based decarbonisation investor Climate Investment.
The financing builds on a partnership that Mitsubishi Electric, MUFG Bank, Japanese satellite-data company Satellite Data Services and GHGSat signed in November 2024. In June, the Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security (JOGMEC), a public agency, selected Mitsubishi Electric as the prime contractor for a project to verify how satellite data can identify and measure greenhouse gas emissions at their source.
How GHGSat traces methane emissions to industrial sites
Wide-area public missions such as Europe’s Copernicus Sentinel-5P can flag large methane hotspots across a region. GHGSat’s commercial fleet is designed to examine selected sites at finer resolution and trace a plume back to its point source, such as a well pad or a processing installation. The company has been developing that capability since its first satellite, Claire, launched in June 2016. Founded in 2011, the Canadian company used the mission to demonstrate that a small spacecraft could make measurements detailed enough to trace emissions to individual facilities.
Because methane absorbs light at specific wavelengths, GHGSat’s instruments can detect excess methane by looking for its absorption signature in sunlight reflected from the ground. The resulting map can show a plume stretching downwind from its source. GHGSat says its methane satellites sample the ground at about 25 metres per pixel. That detail helps analysts distinguish between neighbouring installations and, when the plume and site layout allow, trace a release to a specific piece of equipment.
To estimate how much gas is escaping each hour, GHGSat combines the plume’s shape and methane content with wind data and reports the uncertainty alongside the result. The measurement gives an operator a location to investigate and an estimate of the size of the release, which can help determine where to send a crew first.
How GHGSat expanded its monitoring in 2026
In its annual report published in June, GHGSat reported detecting 28,224 methane plumes across 127 countries in 2025. The report draws on satellite and aircraft data from oil and gas, waste and mining operations. Four more methane-monitoring satellites followed in 2026. Eleonore and Nuray launched in July, and GHGSat announced the launch and deployment of Eleanor and Aidan on 1 October. The company says the expanded fleet can make multiple passes a day over targeted areas, giving it more opportunities to observe a site.
More frequent passes give GHGSat more chances to catch intermittent releases. To detect smaller releases from orbit, the company announced in September that it was developing a second-generation demonstrator, GHGSat-D2, which Canadian spacecraft developer SFL Missions is building with a larger sensor manufactured by ABB Canada. The design targets detection of methane releases of 50 kilograms per hour, half the threshold GHGSat quotes for its current satellites, and twice the daily area coverage per satellite.
GHGSat already uses aircraft to investigate smaller sources within facilities. In June, GHGSat announced that MiQ, an independent methane emissions certification programme for oil and gas, had found the airborne system compatible for use for facility-scale inspections.
GHGSat is also extending its monitoring work into new areas. That same month, GHGSat joined POSEIDON, a €5 million Horizon Europe research project on monitoring marine and coastal pollution. Earlier in the year, it signed a memorandum with Uzbekistan’s space agency to explore satellite emissions monitoring there.
How IBUKI GW and GHGSat would work together
The Japanese partnership pairs GHGSat’s detailed measurements with a satellite built to survey much larger areas. IBUKI GW, also known as GOSAT-GW, launched in June 2025. Mitsubishi Electric led development of the spacecraft and its instruments, including a greenhouse gas spectrometer developed under a programme run by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency for Japan’s environment ministry. The instrument observes atmospheric methane and carbon dioxide across wide areas, giving the partners a way to look for elevated concentrations before choosing where to focus.
In the proposed workflow, an area flagged by IBUKI GW provides the ‘tip’. The partners then send a ‘cue’, an observation request that directs GHGSat’s fleet to image a particular location at higher resolution.
A landfill study near Madrid illustrates why the two scales of observation are useful, as MTN reported in The methane plumes that companies can no longer hide. At the Las Dehesas landfill near Madrid, researchers combined regional observations from Europe’s Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite with GHGSat’s higher-resolution measurements, aircraft surveys and ground checks. The findings helped the landfill operator target maintenance on its gas collection system, with follow-up observations used to assess the work.
What satellite methane data can tell LNG buyers
In liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply chains, facility-level measurements can also help buyers investigate emissions at sites they do not operate. JOGMEC’s 2025 report on a methane initiative for LNG buyers and producers describes combining IBUKI GW observations with commercial satellite data to improve visibility into emissions associated with those supply chains.
That is where the Japanese project could make a difference for LNG buyers. If a regional methane signal can be traced to a specific installation, a buyer has a concrete finding to raise with its supplier, and the operator has a place to start investigating. A follow-up pass can then help establish whether the plume persists.
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