Does TROPOMI Show a Seasonal Pattern of Methane Enhancements in the Permian Basin?

Methane, a greenhouse gas, has many sources ranging from livestock to gas and oil production. While there is less methane in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide (CO2) and it only has a life cycle of 12 years, methane is 28 times better at trapping radiation than CO2 over 100 years. In 2017, the Sentinel-5P satellite was sent into space with a tropospheric monitoring instrument, (TROPOMI) that orbits earth collecting information on different chemical compounds in the atmosphere. With questions relating to whether anthropogenic methane has any seasonal pattern arising from recent studies, we use TROPOMI to see if this pattern can be observed using satellite-observations. Our focus region was the Permian basin as it is the largest oil production basin in the US, located in western Texas and southeastern New Mexico. TROPOMI latitude, longitude, and methane mole fraction data was downloaded for 2019 to 2022. For each year, we calculated and compared seasonal column methane enhancements over the Permian basin. For 2022, we find a pattern of methane mole fractions increasing as follows: spring = summer < winter < fall, and spring = summer < fall < winter from 2019 to 2021 primarily in the Texas portion of the Permian basin. In particular, during the winter the Texas portion of the Permian basin has a higher methane mole fraction by ~20-37 ppb on average in 2022 relative to summer. It is possible that this difference in pattern between the New Mexico and Texas portion of the basin is due to differences in state regulations. Identifying the presence of seasonal patterns in other oil and gas basins could help inform future policy that aids in reducing methane emissions long-term.