Thanks NOAA and EUMETSAT! Metop IASI Global Methane Imagery Now Available - New April 5 CH4 High - 1807 ppb

On March 26, 2014, the Metop A IASI methane and carbon dioxide imagery along with its other sounding products became unavailable to a hardware fault. See: http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/SATS/SPBULL/MSG0941254.01.txt

As of yesterday, it seemed this information source, along with the Metop 2/B (which was not publicly available at that time) would remain unavailable for at least two weeks.

This morning I was pleasantly shocked to find that NOAA has updated the Metop IASI sounding page and that data is now planned to be publicly available from Metop 1/A IASI (still in recovery) and Metop 2/B which is operational and now public.

Many, many thanks to EUMETSAT and NOAA for making this imagery available to the public for the second IASI sounder, and potentially both sounders in the next few weeks!

For the new webpage, see: http://www.ospo.noaa.gov/Products/atmosphere/soundings/iasi/index.html

So how has the global mean CH4 changed since March 26th? Alot!

On April 5, 2014 12-24 hrs, IASI measured global mean methane at 1807 ppb, which is 7 ppb above the same date last year! In 2013, 1807 ppb was not reached until July 15th in  2013! There may be a couple of reasons. One is the early thaws in Siberia and parts of Canada, and the other is the earlier fire season in Russia and the US. The Antarctic methane layer also has high concentrations.

The next few months are going to be interesting, to see if this increasing trend continues.

Also, support Methanetracker.org. they need funding for a new upgrade. One of the best contributions to climate science someone can make! See http://www.methanetracker.org/