Let’s Investigate Methane for Climate Action

Abstract

2025 started with the launch of the H-Europe project IM4CA to enhance the quantification and understanding of methane emissions and sinks. A consortium of 25 partners joins forces to investigate pressing questions about the evolution atmospheric methane levels in recent decades, to reduce the uncertainty in future projections and design efficient solutions for monitoring and mitigating emissions in and outside of Europe. It will build new measurement and modelling infrastructure for improved monitoring of the progress toward short- and long-term emission reduction targets, with a prominent role for existing and upcoming satellite missions for measuring atmospheric composition and land surface properties.The changing European methane emissions are an important focus of the project, which we keep track of with help of eastward extensions of the ICOS monitoring network in Poland and Romania. Intensive measurement campaigns in Rumania are conducted combining surface, aircraft, and total column measurements to improve the accuracy of emission quantification techniques using satellite data. The world-wide applicability of these techniques will extend the impact of our campaigns far beyond European borders.Besides changing anthropogenic emissions, climate impacts on natural sources and sinks of methane are an important focus of IM4CA also. The four-year research program will initiate new measurement infrastructure in Congo to help characterize emissions from tropical wetlands in Africa. Campaigns will be conducted in Northern Scandinavia along a transect of disappearing permafrost to investigate impacts on vegetation and methane emissions using techniques that can be applied to high-resolution satellite instruments for circumpolar emission mapping.This presentation will provide an overview of the planned activities and goals of IM4CA. The project offers a great opportunity to learn about methane in a cooperative spirit and to reach out and provide support to those who can turn knowledge about methane into climate action.

Authors 15

1. Sander Houweling corresponding Aachen SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research

   Space Research Organisation Netherlands · Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

   Affiliation as printed

   SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, Leiden, Netherlands

   Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Earth Sciences, Amsterdam, Netherlands (s.houweling@vu.nl)

2. Roxana Petrescu

   Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

   Affiliation as printed

   Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Earth Sciences, Amsterdam, Netherlands (s.houweling@vu.nl)

3. Thomas Röckmann corresponding

   Utrecht University

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands

4. Jean-Daniel Paris corresponding

   Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement

   Affiliation as printed

   Climate and Environmental Science Laboratory (LSCE), Gif-Sur-Yvette, France

5. Torsten Sachs corresponding

   GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences

   Affiliation as printed

   German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ), Postdam, Germany

6. Tuula Aalto corresponding

   Finnish Meteorological Institute

   Affiliation as printed

   Finnish Meteorological Institute, Helsinki, Finland

7. Manuel U. Gloor

   University of Leeds

   Affiliation as printed

   University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom

8. Hartmut Boesch corresponding

   University of Bremen

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute of Environmental Physics, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany

9. Andreas Stohl corresponding

   University of Vienna

   Affiliation as printed

   University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

10. Hugo Denier van der Gon corresponding

    Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research

    Affiliation as printed

    TNO, Utrecht, Netherlands

11. Marielle Saunois

    Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement

    Affiliation as printed

    Climate and Environmental Science Laboratory (LSCE), Gif-Sur-Yvette, France

12. Rona Louise Thompson corresponding

    NILU

    Affiliation as printed

    NILU, Oslo, Norway

13. Sergey Gromov corresponding

    Max Planck Institute for Chemistry

    Affiliation as printed

    MPI for Chemistry, Mainz, Germany

14. Lena Höglund-Isaksson corresponding

    International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis

    Affiliation as printed

    International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Laxenburg, Austria

15. Ernest N. Koffi corresponding

    European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts

    Affiliation as printed

    European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF)