Major UK methane leak is spotted from space: Satellite discovers plumes of the greenhouse gas coming from a pipeline in Cheltenham – with enough released to power 7,500 homes for a year
Scientists have used satellites to detect a methane leak over the UK for the first time.
Imagery from satellite company GHGSat shows plumes of the greenhouse gas coming from a pipeline just north of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.
Experts say enough methane was released during the leak earlier this year to power 7,500 homes for a year – described as a major loss.
The cause of the leak is unclear, but experts think ageing infrastructure is to blame rather than sabotage, thought to be the case with the Nord Stream leak last year.
This new methane leak was discovered in March by researchers at the University of Leeds, but not revealed to the BBC until now.
It marks the first time a methane leak has been spotted from space, as opposed to detected from the ground, according to the experts.
‘The UK is not known to have significant methane leaks on a global scale,’ PhD student Emily Dowd at the university’s School of Earth and Environment told MailOnline.
‘But the satellite data shows that we might need to look harder to find previously unknown leaks.’
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