Climate Change

Methane is invisible, odorless in low concentrations and a byproduct of raising cattle and drilling gas and oil for energy. The arrival of MethaneSAT in orbit last month has sparked new hopes among environmentalists that businesses will soon be held accountable for their methane emissions and that this will prompt them to improve their self-monitoring. Hope Hodge Seck looks at the fine points of identifying polluters from space.

The growing frequency and intensity of wildfires has operators clamoring to increase the number of large air tankers in their fleets. Should they turn to refurbished civilian and military planes, or clean-sheet designs? Keith Button spoke to U.S. agencies, industry groups and aircraft developers about the ongoing debate.

Kate Calvin, NASA chief scientist and senior climate adviser

Why are climate scientists so sure that our planet is in fact getting warmer? Adam Hadhazy went looking for answers.

When the trend of air travelers feeling guilty about their carbon footprints first arose, it seemed to some in the U.S. that it could be a passing fad. Now it looks like flight shaming is not going away and could even begin impacting aircraft designs. Adam Hadhazy checks in with environmentalists and the aviation industry.

No longer the sole purview of government space agencies and researchers, methane monitoring from space is emerging as a private-sector enterprise, with potential benefits for industry as well as climate science. Adam Hadhazy checks in with the market leaders.