Tanager 2 Launch to Scale Up Carbon Mapper's Methane Impact

Second satellite brings more emissions transparency across more locations — strengthening society's ability to mitigate methane

LOMPOC, Calif, Oct. 1, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the Tanager-2 satellite was successfully launched into orbit onboard the SpaceX Transporter-18 rideshare mission. Tanager-2 is the second of a series of satellites developed by Planet Labs PBC through a unique partnership led by the nonprofit Carbon Mapper and backed by philanthropy.

Tanager satellites are designed and optimized to detect methane super-emitters with high granularity so they can be traced to a specific location and acted on quickly. For the past two years, Carbon Mapper has used Tanager-1 methane detections to drive meaningful greenhouse gas reductions on the ground. Now, the organization is delivering on its commitments to scale up impact, with Tanager-2 being the next exciting chapter.

"With Tanager-1, Carbon Mapper delivered on every promise it made. Tanager-2 shows why this partnership works: it gives us the credibility and the velocity to scale mitigation fast — cutting a super-pollutant that drives near-term warming and protecting the health of communities living near these emissions sources," said Richard Lawrence, Founder and Director of High Tide Foundation.

Methane breaks down in the atmosphere more quickly than carbon dioxide and is 80 times more potent over 20 years, so cutting it now can help slow the rate of global warming. Among the human-caused sources of methane, super-emitters represent an outsized climate opportunity — contributing up to 50% of a region's total emissions in some sectors. Finding and fixing these emissions can result in significant and immediate reductions.

"We built Carbon Mapper to make sure that seeing methane from space leads to fixing it on the ground — and we've proven that across major sectors and regions worldwide," said Riley Duren, Carbon Mapper CEO. "Tanager-2 is our next major step in scaling that impact, connecting data to action everywhere, faster than ever."

"Data from the first Tanager satellite has greatly improved our ability to identify and stop methane leaks," said Michael R. Bloomberg, UN Special Envoy on Climate Ambition and Solutions and founder of Bloomberg L.P. and Bloomberg Philanthropies. "The second satellite will help to speed up that progress — making more data available, empowering governments and businesses to take action, and reducing more of the emissions that fuel climate change."

Here's how:

Public Data for the Public Good
Carbon Mapper combines facility-level detection precision with fully open, public access to methane and CO₂ data at global scale. Since 2024, Carbon Mapper has used Tanager observations to pinpoint and publicly share granular data on thousands of methane plumes. To date, the organization's website has published 15,200 methane plumes from 5,400 unique emissions sources. This data reaches nearly 100,000 direct users around the world, enabling action on super-emitting events across oil and gas, coal, waste, and agriculture.

With Tanager-2, a second satellite increases revisit frequency, multiplying the amount of methane emissions data Carbon Mapper will make publicly available.

Scaling Mitigation Action
Since Tanager-1 was launched in August 2024, Carbon Mapper has been working to scale action quickly — proving that if data is accessible, emissions can be stopped. The organization's earliest mitigation success came within two months of Tanager-1 launching: a Permian Basin gathering-pipeline leak emitting around 7,000 kg CH4/hr, detected in October 2024, was fixed within two weeks after state and federal notification."

Tanager-1 quickly scaled up Carbon Mapper's public data — and the number of decision makers acting on it grew just as fast.

Since 2025, Carbon Mapper has delivered or supported more than 460 methane notifications across the U.S., leading to 68 confirmed mitigations, with many more under review to determine cause and repair. This total reflects two efforts: the organization's direct notifications to operators and regulators, and its support for state-led programs such as the California Air Resources Board's (CARB) California Satellite Methane Project (CalSMP). Much of this growth came in 2026 as Carbon Mapper scaled its work across 13 U.S. states.

In the oil and gas sector, these mitigations prevented 7.8 million metric tons of CO₂e from entering the atmosphere — roughly the equivalent of taking 1.8 million gas-powered vehicles off the road for one year.

CalSMP alone has led to the mitigation of 46 large events between May 2025 and August 2026, demonstrating how governments can successfully reduce emissions using Carbon Mapper's satellite methane data. This success is generating exciting policy momentum as other governments are stepping up to do the same. For example, New Mexico is advancing a landmark proposed methane abatement rule that would create a super-emitter response program, requiring operators to investigate, repair, and report on methane detected by remote sensing technologies.

"When California vowed to launch our own damn satellite to track dangerous pollution, our partners stepped up to the challenge, launching the Tanager-1 satellite in 2024. This project has already helped us stop 18 major methane leaks. Tanager-2 will help us find and fix even more — using their satellite data to tackle the most potent climate pollutant," said CARB Chair Lauren Sanchez. "CARB's commitment to science means we can use these expanded capabilities to supercharge our work and cut emissions faster."

This growing momentum reflects a broader international push to accelerate methane mitigation. Recent calls by the UN Secretary-General for stronger action on methane have highlighted the importance of rapidly identifying and addressing major emissions sources.

In this context, Carbon Mapper's international collaborations are scaling methane transparency and underpinning methane action across the globe. Through a collaboration with the UN's International Methane Emissions Observatory (IMEO), Carbon Mapper is feeding Tanager methane data into the Methane Alert and Response System (MARS), a program which has already helped mitigate more than 40 major emission events worldwide before the Carbon Mapper partnership was formalized. With Tanager methane data now a part of MARS, Carbon Mapper is strengthening the system's ability to detect super-emitters and drive mitigation action. In addition, through a partnership with the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI), Carbon Mapper is combining its public Tanager methane data with OGCI's industry-led engagement model to help local operators identify, prioritize, and mitigate emissions more quickly and effectively.

"Carbon Mapper's satellite data is a valuable contribution to IMEO's Methane Alert and Response System, helping to provide timely information on major methane emissions for action worldwide," said Giulia Ferrini, Head, IMEO at UNEP. "With Tanager-2, more of those events can be uncovered, and addressed."

By expanding the availability of timely, facility-level methane data, Tanager-2 will help equip governments, regulators, industry, and international initiatives with the information needed to accelerate methane reductions and support near-term climate goals. Tanager-2 will also augment Carbon Mapper's ability to detect and follow up on actionable events while feeding a growing pipeline of cases through the partnerships with IMEO and OGCI. More satellite coverage across more locations will strengthen the scientific and evidentiary basis regulators and legislators rely on, and support expansion of this policy engagement into more states and countries. 

The launch of Tanager-2 is part of Carbon Mapper's longstanding strategy to scale a multi-tiered emission-observing system in partnership with Planet. Planet plans to build and deploy at least two additional broad-spectrum Tanagers, as well as at least one new specialized Tanager, which will be optimized for short-wave infrared (SWIR) imagery. Carbon Mapper plans to initially deploy this new technology on aircraft beginning in 2027 to detect a wider range of atmospheric gases prior to launch.

About Carbon Mapper

Carbon Mapper is a science-based nonprofit in Pasadena, CA, with the mission to drive greenhouse gas emissions reductions by making methane and carbon dioxide data accessible and actionable. The organization is recognized for its collaborations with stakeholders to translate data into action, lead cutting-edge science and research, and advance education and insights on emissions globally. Carbon Mapper leverages remote sensing technology to fill gaps in the emerging ecosystem of emissions monitoring systems and deliver precise, timely facility-scale data to empower decision makers and drive mitigation action. The organization and its partners continue to develop and deploy a constellation of satellites that enable Carbon Mapper to quantify and verify methane emissions, make this data publicly accessible, and grow capacity to act on this data to lower emissions worldwide. Learn more at carbonmapper.org and view data at data.carbonmapper.org.  

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SOURCE Carbon Mapper Inc.