Arctic methane release is one source of green house gas impacts on global warming and climate change.
While the atmospheric lifespan of CH4 is estimated to be 12.4 years, the warming impact of methane (CH4) is far more intense than CO2. The following impacts are estimated as a comparison between the two gases of 1 kg of CH4 vs 1kg of CO2 in climate forcing. The following GWP impacts are several sources:
Years time: CH4 x CO2e
500 7.6 x CO2e (1)
100 25.0 x CO2e (1)
100 33.0 x CO2e (2)
20 72.0 x CO2e (1)
20 105.0 x CO2e (2)
1 120.0 x CO2e
(1) 2007 IPCC AR4: Table 2.14, page 212, and as explained on pp. 210-214.
(2) David Shindell 2009 paper in regard to the U.S National Climate Assessment.
The 2013 METOP 2 IASI CH4 (methane) concentration imagery for April to June, 2013 is available at: https://sites.google.com/site/a4r2013metop2ch4aprjun/
The 2013 METOP 2 IASI CH4 (methane) concentration imagery for January to March, 2013 is available at: https://sites.google.com/site/a4r2013metop2iasich4co2/
In late 2012, EUMET began shared release of the daily METOP 2 IASI CH4 and CO2 concentration data. This is mapped daily in 12 hr increments (0-12 hr and 12-24 hr) by the NOAA Office of Satellite Data Processing and Distribution (OSDPD).
The OSDPD site describes the data collection:
"Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI), is a hyperspectral infrared sounder residing on the European Space Agencys (ESA) MetOp series of polar orbiting satellites. These data are made available to NOAA through the International Joint Polar-Orbiting Operational Satellite System (IJPS) agreement. The first priority of the IASI Product Processing System (PPS) is to generate radiance products that are produced using Level 1C data, which are ingested in a pipeline mode from the European Organization for the Exploitation Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), applied to spectral and spatial sub-setting.
The system generates Level 1C Thinned (L1CT) radiance and Level 2 profile products. Currently the IASI level 2 products from MetOp-2 satellite include temperature and humidity profiles with a vertical accuracies of 1 degree Kelvin and 10 % per 1-km layer respectively, trace gases, and the cloud cleared radiances (CCR) on a global scale and these products are available to the operational user community."
The PPBv and PPM imagery is only archived for three days, and no raw data files are available. What is produced is 100 slices of gas concentration in the atmosphere from .016 mb to 1042 mb. The data usually maintained on the A4R web site is the 586 mb and 718 mb runs.
The original CH4 and CO2 METOP 2 IASI imagery can be found at:
I download and archive the imagery for 336-945 mb, beginning Dec 5, 2012 for CH4, (when I first discovered this resource) and Dec 25, 2012 for the CO2 cocentration maps.