Date/Time
Date(s) - Fri 15 March
17:30 - 19:30
Pacific wide final pitch competition and awards ceremony for space challenge leveraging space technologies to address climate change.
The Challenge
Using satellite data, in combination with other data sources, help develop scientific methods to identify target areas of methane emissions on Earth.
Methane is a strong greenhouse gas, and the monitoring and control of methane emissions is a vital component of efforts to reduce and mitigate the effects of climate change.
Strong methane emissions primarily occur from leaks from petrochemical extraction and industrial processing operations. But globally, the challenge is to identify methane emissions from weaker sources such as livestock and agriculture operations, landfills, and natural emissions from sources including wetlands and coastal areas.
Methane monitoring from space currently uses the Sentinel 5P spacecraft (at low spatial resolution) as well as recent results from GHGsat, Sentinel 2, and the EMIT instrument.
These sensors have picked up strong methane emissions, but the next challenge is to identify target locations to detect sources of weaker methane emissions. Target areas are needed in preparation for the launch of MethaneSAT (jointly sponsored by the US Environmental Defence Fund and the New Zealand government).
To fully account for global methane emissions, which areas should be targeted for the different types of sources? Are there other satellite sensors which can be applied to the problem of identifying these target areas, or detecting the weaker methane emissions? Are there specific areas that will offer advantages for calibration?
This challenge invites teams to develop tools to help in the global effort to monitor and control methane emissions, and directly contribute to the fight against climate change.
Join ONLINE for the final pitch session and award ceremony of the “Space for Planet Earth Challenge”.
Six teams will compete at the high school and university/startup levels for a chance to win up to $25,000 dollars and mentorship addressing methane emissions to address climate change through space technologies.
Challenge Finalists teams from New Zealand, Australia and the Philippines will pitch solutions.
High School
Cashmere Space Club – Christchurch, New Zealand
Methane Mavericks – Newham, Australia
USBONG ME – Ilo-Ilo, Philippines
University/Startup Level:
IXI/Macquarie University – Sydney, Australia
Project AIM – Metro Manila, Philippines
University of Otago – Dunedin, New Zealand
Speakers:
Hosted by Amy Armstrong, Great Barrier Reef Foundation and Edmund Hillary Fellow
Hon. Judith Collins, Minister of Space
Peter Vedder, Senior Director, MethaneSat
Tom Udall, US Ambassador to New Zealand
Anne Rouault, Science Attache, French Embassy
Dimitri Geidelberg, New Zealand Space Agency
Elyse Allender, Australian Space Agency