Approach and methodology

The UN Environment Programme's International Methane Emissions Observatory (IMEO) brings together policy-relevant, transparent, reliable methane emission data from various data sources and across multiple sectors.

Source: Rollmo

Through transparent reporting of sources and methodologies and rigorous data quality assurance processes, IMEO builds confidence in the quality, integrity and utility of measurement-based data.

But access to data is not enough. To enable effective methane reduction, IMEO exists to provide open, reliable and actionable data to the individuals that can act to reduce methane emissions. It does so by involving them in the data collection, making sense of diverse data through integration, providing products and tools to decision makers, building capacity and empowering agents of change through training and targeted in-country engagement.

Towards data integration

IMEO collects and integrates data through rigorous industry reporting via the Oil and Gas Methane Partnership 2.0 (OGMP 2.0), from satellites via the Methane Alert and Response System (MARS), from IMEO-funded and partner-led global methane science studies, and from national emissions inventories.

IMEO’s data integration efforts bring together diverse data sets across different scales (source, site and regional), technologies (in-situ or remote sensing) and reporting frameworks, such as UNEP’s OGMP 2.0.

Methodologies

Eye on Methane // GLOBAL uses different methodologies for selecting, collecting, verifying, integrating and sharing results. The table below summarizes the methodologies used and links to further, more technical information, where available.

	Satellite observations	Sector-specific transparency initiatives	Science studies
DATA SOURCE	MARS draws data from more than a dozen satellites and space sensors, including the global mapping satellite Sentinel-5P and the high-resolution satellites EnMAP, PRISMA, Sentinel-2, Landsat constellation (from Landsat4 to Landsat9), the EMIT sensor, Sentinel-3, VIIRS sensors and the geostationary satellite GOES. It also works with the valuable archive data from MethaneSAT and GHGSat to identify potential emission sources that need to be monitored over time, and is currently working on integrating new satellites such as the Chinese GF-5 02, GF-5 01A, ZY-1 02D, and ZY-1 02E, Carbon Mapper’s Tanager-1, the Japanese GOSAT-GW or EUMETSAT's geostationary MTG satellite.	Oil and Gas Methane Partnership 2.0 OGMP 2.0 member companies provide methane emission data to IMEO. The OGMP 2.0 standard requires companies to characterize each data element with a quality indicator, ranging from 1 (estimate) to 5 (source and site-level integration). Locations of assets are based on publicly available sources. Steel Methane Programme The SMP Coal Methane Database aims to quantify emissions at mine-level from active coal production to create the first dataset of almost half of methane emissions associated with the global steel production. It integrates data from: 1. Science studies 2. Satellite data 3. Data reported by companies to their respective national authorities 4. Inventory data Steel companies and plant data: • Global Iron and Steel Tracker, Global Energy Monitor, September 2025 (V1) release • Green Steel Tracker, Leadership Group for Industry Transition (LeadIT), 2025 Mine data: • General mine info: Global Coal Mine Tracker, Global Energy Monitor, May 2025 release • Point source and mine boundaries: Global Energy Monitor, 2025 Met coal trade routes and port data: • Kpler and DBX, curated by Ember	Science studies gather data to: 1. Integrate and reconcile multi-scale empirical data. 2. Characterize, assess and validate measurement-based approaches. 3. Conduct data assurance and characterize regions or sources with high uncertainty or discrepancies in the integrated data. 4. Support the understanding and development of national emissions inventories and mitigation action.
DATA COLLECTION	Data is collected daily and analysed by experts with the support of internally developed AI models. When needed, IMEO also directly tasks satellites to capture specific observations, ensuring targeted and timely monitoring.	Oil and Gas Methane Partnership 2.0 OGMP 2.0 data is collected yearly through reports that companies send to IMEO. Steel Methane Programme SMP Coal Methane Database data sources will be updated periodically with additional datasets or company data as they become available, improving data quality and confidence.	Data collected several times a year for science studies may come from: satellites, ships, airplanes, drones, ground-level measurements, towers or desktop review.
DATA QUALITY ASSURANCE	IMEO experts analyse and validate every detected plume and provide an estimate of emission rate with its uncertainty range based on satellite measurements and wind reanalysis data products.	Oil and Gas Methane Partnership 2.0 IMEO conducts company data assurance by assessing: 1. Data quality of the reported data for completeness, consistency and conformity with OGMP 2.0 reporting requirements. 2. Data analytics including analyses of reported data across the partnership to identify patterns, trends and potential anomalies to understand changes moving from estimated to empirical data, to identify potential outliers and facilitate engagement with companies regarding emissions performance 3. Data integration of independent datasets, such as IMEO science studies or satellite data, to support review of company-reported data. 4. Implementation review to assess a company’s implementation plans, methodologies and technologies for quantification and reconciliation approaches. Steel Methane Programme SMP Coal Methane Database data sources are combined in a dedicated statistical model to generate mine-level integrated estimates of annual emissions including uncertainty bounds. Considering availability, these estimates will be compared to in-mine emission measurements based on mine safety sensors to assess and improve model performance.	Data collected for science studies come from direct measurements obtained in-situ by IMEO’s science partners. All science studies are peer-reviewed.

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Estimated / Measured

In the context of the Eye on Methane data platform, we refer to measured and estimated data as follows.

Measured refers to methane emissions data obtained directly through observational or experimental methods, grounded in empirical evidence. These values are derived from actual measurements using instruments, sensors, or other direct methods.
Estimated refers to data derived from models, assumptions, or calculations based on generic emissions factors.