Apart from fossil fuels and agricultural production, methane emissions also come from natural sources such as microbes in saturated wetland soils, and scientists say new studies show it is much more damaging than carbon dioxide emissions
Workshop:
Towards Addressing Major Gaps in the Global Methane Budget                                
May 22 - May 25, 2017
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Carbon locked in the frozen earth will escape gradually as the Arctic permafrost melts. In a new study, scientists say the process could accelerate
Short Course:
Global Methane in the 21st Century                               
May 22, 2017
Details  
Vietnam rice field
Open Lecture: Methane in the Climate System - Monitoring Emissions from Satellites                 
May 23, 2017
Details  
Methane workshop
Register for Methane Workshop Here
                 
All invited attendees should register for this event
Online Registration  

    The Linde Center for Global Environmental Science at Caltech is hosting a workshop, "Towards Addressing Major Gaps in the Global Methane Budget " at the Keck Center on the campus of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, CA on May 22 - May 25, 2017. In addition to this invitation-only workshop, there will be a short course and a lecture - both of which are available to all interested students, researchers and faculty in the Southern California area.

    Background:

    Methane is the second most important long-lived greenhouse gas emitted by humanity, increases tropospheric ozone levels worsening air quality, and is the primary source of water vapor to the stratosphere, yet we still struggle to explain recent changes in the global budget and remain unable to assess whether atmospheric levels are likely to increase in coming years. With this workshop we aim to bring together a diverse group of experts to discuss key knowledge gaps and necessary paths forward to resolve key questions in understanding current and future methane emissions. This workshop will address both natural and anthropogenic sources of methane, and will address recent contradictory assessments of atmospheric trends in recent years. The meeting then aims to summarize current major gaps in understanding and how current/planned and future observations could be used to bridge these gaps.

    Major threads:

    1. Methane of recent past (~30 years): What we know, what we don’t know, and reasons for disagreement (or missing observational constraints)
    2. State of current and near term anticipated observation (and modeling) systems and what can be done with that.
    3. Where are the biggest gaps, and how can we address (with new approaches, measurements, combination of different approaches, etc…)