Greenhouse Gas Monitoring Sensors

ABB Space Division (a business unit of ABB Group, the Swiss-Swedish multinational power and automation company) designs and manufactures advanced optical spectroradiometers and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectrometers for space-based greenhouse gas (GHG) monitoring. ABB has established itself as a key technology partner for global carbon monitoring missions.

ABB developed the TANSO-FTS (Thermal and Near infrared Sensor for Carbon Observation — Fourier Transform Spectrometer) instruments for JAXA’s GOSAT (Greenhouse gases Observing SATellite) and GOSAT-2 missions — the world’s first satellites dedicated to measuring atmospheric CO2 and methane concentrations globally. The TANSO-FTS provides measurements at 15,600 cm⁻¹ spectral resolution across four spectral bands.

ABB also developed the GHGSat core spectrometer technology — compact SWIR Fabry-Pérot interferometer sensors used by GHGSat Inc.’s commercial satellites for pinpointing methane emission sources (individual oil/gas wellheads, coal mines, agricultural sources) from space at 25 m resolution. This instrument miniaturization work enables small satellites to detect methane plumes previously invisible to coarse-resolution satellite instruments. ABB’s space optics expertise is based in Québec City, Canada.