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Methane emissions from the Nord Stream subsea pipeline leaks

Harris, Stephen J. and Schwietzke, Stefan and France, James L. and Velandia, Nataly and Meixus Fernandez, Tania and Randles, Cynthia and Ganter, Luis and Irakulis-Loitxate, Itziar and Calcan, Andreea and Aben, Ilse and Abrahamsson, Katarina and Balcombe, Paul and Berchet, Antoine and Biddle, Louise C. and Bittig, Henry C. and Böttcher, Christian and Bouvard, Timo and Broström, Göran and Bruch, Valentin and Cassiani, Massimo and Chipperfield, Martyn P. and Ciais, Phillipe and Damm, Ellen and Dammers, Enrico and Denier Van Der Gon, Hugo and Dogniaux, Matthieu and Dowd, Emily and Dupouy, Francois and Eckhardt, Sabine and Evangeliou, Nikolaus and Feng, Wuhu and Jia, Mengwei and Jiang, Fei and Kaiser-Weiss, Andrea and Kamoun, Ines and Kerridge, Brian and Lampert, Astrid and Lana, José and Li, Fei and Maasakkers, Joannes D. and Maclean, Jean-Philippe W. and Mamtimin, Buhalqem and Marshall, Julia and Mauger, Gédéon and Mekkas, Anouar and Mielke, Christian and Mohrmann, Martin and Moore, David P. and Nanni, Ricardo and Pätzold, Falk and Pison, Isabelle and Pisso, Ignacio and Platt, Stephen M. and Préa, Raphaël and Queste, Bastien Y. and Ramonet, Michel and Rehder, Gregor and Remedios, John J. and Reum, Friedemann and Roiger, Anke and Schmidbauer, Norbert and Siddans, Richard and Sunkisala, Anusha and Thompson, Rona L. and Varon, Daniel J. and Ventress, Lucy J. and Wilson, Chris and Zhang, Yuzhong (2025) Methane emissions from the Nord Stream subsea pipeline leaks. Nature, 637 (8048), pp. 1124-1130. Nature Publishing Group. doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-08396-8. ISSN 0028-0836.

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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-08396-8

Abstract

The amount of methane released to the atmosphere from the Nord Stream subsea pipeline leaks remains uncertain, as reflected in a wide range of estimates1–18. A lack of information regarding the temporal variation in atmospheric emissions has made it challenging to reconcile pipeline volumetric (bottom-up) estimates1–8 with measurement-based (top-down) estimates8–18. Here we simulate pipeline rupture emission rates and integrate these with methane dissolution and sea-surface outgassing estimates9,10 to model the evolution of atmospheric emissions from the leaks. We verify our modelled atmospheric emissions by comparing them with top-down point-in-time emission-rate estimates and cumulative emission estimates derived from airborne11, satellite8,12–14 and tall tower data. We obtain consistency between our modelled atmospheric emissions and top-down estimates and find that 465 ± 20 thousand metric tons of methane were emitted to the atmosphere. Although, to our knowledge, this represents the largest recorded amount of methane released from a single transient event, it is equivalent to 0.1% of anthropogenic methane emissions for 2022. The impact of the leaks on the global atmospheric methane budget brings into focus the numerous other anthropogenic methane sources that require mitigation globally. Our analysis demonstrates that diverse, complementary measurement approaches are needed to quantify methane emissions in support of the Global Methane Pledge.

Item URL in elib:https://elib.dlr.de/209345/
Document Type:Article
Title:Methane emissions from the Nord Stream subsea pipeline leaks
Authors:
AuthorsInstitution or Email of AuthorsAuthor's ORCID iDORCID Put Code
Harris, Stephen J.UNEP’s IMEO, Paris, FranceUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Schwietzke, StefanEnvironmental Defense Fund Europe, Brussels, BelgiumUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
France, James L.University of London, UKUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Velandia, NatalyEnvironmental Defense Fund Europe, Brussels, BelgiumUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Meixus Fernandez, TaniaUNEP’s IMEO, Paris, FranceUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Randles, CynthiaUNEP’s IMEO, Paris, FranceUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Ganter, LuisUniversitat Politècnica de València, Valencia, SpainUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Irakulis-Loitxate, ItziarUniversitat Politècnica de València, Valencia, SpainUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Calcan, AndreeaUNEP’s IMEO, Paris, FranceUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Aben, IlseSRON Leiden, NLUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Abrahamsson, KatarinaUniversity of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, SwedenUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Balcombe, PaulQueen Mary University of London, London, UKUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Berchet, AntoineLSCE-IPSL (CEA-CNRS-UVSQ), Université Paris-Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette, Francehttps://orcid.org/0000-0001-6709-0125UNSPECIFIED
Biddle, Louise C.Voice of the Ocean Foundation, Västra Frölunda, SwedenUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Bittig, Henry C.Leibniz Institut für Ostseeforschung, Warnemünde, GermanyUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Böttcher, ChristianGerman Environment Agency, Dessau-Roßlau, GermanyUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Bouvard, TimoUniversité Paris-Saclay, CEA, Gif-sur-Yvette, FranceUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Broström, GöranUniversity of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, SwedenUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Bruch, ValentinDWD Offenbach, GermanyUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Cassiani, MassimoNILU, Kjeller, NorwayUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Chipperfield, Martyn P.University of Leeds, Leeds, UKhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-6803-4149UNSPECIFIED
Ciais, PhillipeLSCE, Gif-sur-Yvette, FranceUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Damm, EllenAlfred Wegener Institute, Bremerhaven, Germanyhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-1487-1283UNSPECIFIED
Dammers, EnricoTNO Utrecht, NLUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Denier Van Der Gon, HugoTNO Utrecht, NLUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Dogniaux, MatthieuSRON Leiden, NLUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Dowd, EmilyUniversity of Leeds, Leeds, UKUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Dupouy, FrancoisUniversité Paris-Saclay, CEA, Gif-sur-Yvette, FranceUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Eckhardt, SabineNILU, Kjeller, NorwayUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Evangeliou, NikolausNILU, Kjeller, NorwayUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Feng, WuhuUniversity of Leeds, Leeds, UKhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-9907-9120UNSPECIFIED
Jia, MengweiNanjing University, Nanjing, ChinaUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Jiang, FeiNanjing University, Nanjing, ChinaUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Kaiser-Weiss, AndreaDWD Offenbach, GermanyUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Kamoun, InesCEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Université Paris-Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette, FranceUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Kerridge, BrianRutherford Appleton Laboratory, Chilton, UKUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Lampert, AstridTU Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germanyhttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-1414-1616UNSPECIFIED
Lana, JoséEnagás Transporte SAU, Madrid, SpainUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Li, FeiNanjing University, Nanjing, ChinaUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Maasakkers, Joannes D.SRON Leiden, NLUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Maclean, Jean-Philippe W.GHGSat Inc., Montreal, CanadaUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Mamtimin, BuhalqemDWD Offenbach, GermanyUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Marshall, JuliaDLR, IPAhttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-2648-128X178858895
Mauger, GédéonUniversité Paris-Saclay, CEA, Gif-sur-Yvette, FranceUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Mekkas, AnouarUniversité Paris-Saclay, CEA, Gif-sur-Yvette, FranceUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Mielke, ChristianGerman Environment Agency, Dessau-Roßlau, GermanyUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Mohrmann, MartinVoice of the Ocean, Västra Frölunda, SwedenUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Moore, David P.University of Leicester, Leicester, UKUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Nanni, RicardoTNO, Utrecht, NLUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Pätzold, FalkTU Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germanyhttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-2126-8367UNSPECIFIED
Pison, IsabelleLSCE/IPSL, CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, FranceUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Pisso, IgnacioNILU, Kjeller, NorwayUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Platt, Stephen M.NILU, Kjeller, NorwayUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Préa, RaphaëlUniversité Paris-Saclay, CEA, Gif-sur-Yvette, FranceUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Queste, Bastien Y.University of Gothenburg, Department of Marine Sciences, Gothenburg, SwedenUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Ramonet, MichelLSCE/IPSL, CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Université Paris-Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette, FranceUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Rehder, GregorLeibniz Institut für Ostseeforschung, Warnemünde, GermanyUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Remedios, John J.University of Leicester, UKUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Reum, FriedemannDLR, IPAhttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-2488-6582UNSPECIFIED
Roiger, AnkeDLR, IPAUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Schmidbauer, NorbertNILU, Kjeller, NorwayUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Siddans, RichardRutherford Appleton Laboratory, UKUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Sunkisala, AnushaDWD Offenbach, GermanyUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Thompson, Rona L.NILU, Kjeller, NorwayUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Varon, Daniel J.Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USAUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Ventress, Lucy J.Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Chilton, UKUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Wilson, ChrisUniversity of Leeds, Leeds, UKUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Zhang, YuzhongWestlake University, Hangzhou, ChinaUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Date:15 January 2025
Journal or Publication Title:Nature
Refereed publication:Yes
Open Access:Yes
Gold Open Access:No
In SCOPUS:Yes
In ISI Web of Science:Yes
Volume:637
DOI:10.1038/s41586-024-08396-8
Page Range:pp. 1124-1130
Publisher:Nature Publishing Group
ISSN:0028-0836
Status:Published
Keywords:Atmosphere, methane, Nord Stream, emission estimation
HGF - Research field:Aeronautics, Space and Transport
HGF - Program:Space
HGF - Program Themes:Earth Observation
DLR - Research area:Raumfahrt
DLR - Program:R EO - Earth Observation
DLR - Research theme (Project):R - Atmospheric and climate research
Location: Oberpfaffenhofen
Institutes and Institutions:Institute of Atmospheric Physics > Atmospheric Trace Species
Deposited By: Reum, Friedemann
Deposited On:27 Nov 2024 08:46
Last Modified:08 Jan 2026 07:39

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