Low-cost solar spectrometer network for wide-scale greenhouse gas monitoring

Climate change is the most pressing threat to humanity, and understanding the sources of greenhouse gases (GHGs) such as CO2 and methane is critical to effectively tackling this problem. Indeed, finding and fixing methane leaks, in particular, is widely viewed as one our best options for slowing global warming in the near term. While the technology for monitoring this critical greenhouse gas has certainly advanced over the past decade, there continues to exist an acute need for an approach that can monitor wide geographic regions reliably and at low-cost to both further our understanding of climate science and to ensure regulatory compliance in the coming years. In response to this need, Butterfly Photonics, Inc. proposes to develop a novel, low-cost, internet-cloudconnected solar spectrometer network capable of measuring methane, CO2, and water over wide geographic regions with little or no human intervention. The small, solar-powered remote sensors will be simple to install, and centrally managed and controlled using cloud-based services. The data from this network will be combined with state-of-the-art atmospheric transport models to locate and quantify greenhouse gas concentrations across entire cities, fracking basins, and other geographic regions of interest.