NASA will put a methane-hunting satellite's data to the test — and train scientists with it

Planet's Tanager satellites see the invisible: their hyperspectral cameras can pick out methane plumes — potent climate leaks — from orbit, and Tanager-2 spotted one over Spain's Costa Blanca within a week of its October 1 launch. Now NASA has awarded Planet an evaluation task order under its Commercial Satellite Data Acquisition programme, putting the data through formal quality checks for use by federally funded scientists. Planet is also opening the data through open standards and a worldwide competition, so researchers everywhere can build on it — a leak-hunting instrument becoming a shared scientific tool.

SDG 13 · Climate action — Mechanism: institutional program