Satellite Quantification of Methane Emissions from Individual Countries in Southeast Asia: Roles of Dry and Wet Seasons
Abstract
Southeast Asia is a global methane (CH4) hotspot, yet its emissions remain highly uncertain particularly regarding seasonal variability. Here we quantify methane emissions over ten Southeast Asian countries using TROPOMI satellite observations and analytical inversions at up to 0.25°×0.3125° resolution (~25km×25km), separately for the dry (October 2021-April 2022) and wet (May-September 2022) seasons. We find despite limited local retrievals during cloud-limited wet season, observations from downwind regions provide effective constraints, yielding considerable information. Our best estimates of annual total, anthropogenic, and natural emissions are 47.9(44.5-51.4), 27.8(26.4-29.2), and 20.1(18.1-22.3) Tg a-1 respectively; parentheses indicate uncertainty ranges from the inversion ensemble. Anthropogenic emissions show a clear seasonal contrast not adequately represented in current inventories, increasing from 24.2 Tg a-1 in the dry season to 32.8 Tg a-1 in the wet season, largely due to rice, livestock, and previously-overlooked oil and waste emissions. Annual rice and livestock emissions (10.8 and 5.8 Tg a-1) exceed UNFCCC reports by 64% and 53%, with large discrepancies in Thailand, Viet Nam, Myanmar, and Indonesia, reflecting the use of outdated activity data and low emission factors. Our separate dry- and wet-season satellite inversions provide an improved basis for mitigation efforts in Southeast Asia under the Global Methane Pledge.
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BibTeX
@misc{xu2026satellite,
title = {{Satellite Quantification of Methane Emissions from Individual Countries in Southeast Asia: Roles of Dry and Wet Seasons}},
author = {Chen Xu and Zichong Chen and Sarah Hancock and Xiaolin Wang and Xueying Yu and Mengyao Liu and Sion Chiew and Shrijwal Adhikari and Beau Damen},
howpublished = {EarthArXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.31223/x5n52s},
url = {https://eartharxiv.org/repository/view/15827/},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Satellite Quantification of Methane Emissions from Individual Countries in Southeast Asia: Roles of Dry and Wet Seasons
AU - Chen Xu
AU - Zichong Chen
AU - Sarah Hancock
AU - Xiaolin Wang
AU - Xueying Yu
AU - Mengyao Liu
AU - Sion Chiew
AU - Shrijwal Adhikari
AU - Beau Damen
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/29
PB - EarthArXiv
DO - 10.31223/x5n52s
UR - https://eartharxiv.org/repository/view/15827/
AB - Southeast Asia is a global methane (CH4) hotspot, yet its emissions remain highly uncertain particularly regarding seasonal variability. Here we quantify methane emissions over ten Southeast Asian countries using TROPOMI satellite observations and analytical inversions at up to 0.25°×0.3125° resolution (~25km×25km), separately for the dry (October 2021-April 2022) and wet (May-September 2022) seasons. We find despite limited local retrievals during cloud-limited wet season, observations from downwind regions provide effective constraints, yielding considerable information. Our best estimates of annual total, anthropogenic, and natural emissions are 47.9(44.5-51.4), 27.8(26.4-29.2), and 20.1(18.1-22.3) Tg a-1 respectively; parentheses indicate uncertainty ranges from the inversion ensemble. Anthropogenic emissions show a clear seasonal contrast not adequately represented in current inventories, increasing from 24.2 Tg a-1 in the dry season to 32.8 Tg a-1 in the wet season, largely due to rice, livestock, and previously-overlooked oil and waste emissions. Annual rice and livestock emissions (10.8 and 5.8 Tg a-1) exceed UNFCCC reports by 64% and 53%, with large discrepancies in Thailand, Viet Nam, Myanmar, and Indonesia, reflecting the use of outdated activity data and low emission factors. Our separate dry- and wet-season satellite inversions provide an improved basis for mitigation efforts in Southeast Asia under the Global Methane Pledge.
ER -