Satellite Observation of the Methane Distribution over Peninsular Malaysia

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Methane, or CH4, is the main component of natural gas. Methane (CH4) is a greenhouse gas. It plays a key role in Earth's climate. For this reason, research on CH4 is often closely linked with research on climate change. It is produced naturally from biomass decay, primarily in wetlands. We present the observations of tropospheric CH4 by the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) onboard NASA's Aqua satellite. The aim of this investigation is to study the CH4 distribution in Peninsular Malaysia. The atmospheric abundances of CH4 obtained from the analysis of AIRS data are discussed in this study in order to demonstrate the potential scientific return for climate change study. In this study, land use map of the Peninsular Malaysia was conducted by using National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration-Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (NOAA-AVHRR) data data. The NOAA-AVHRR image was processed and analyzed geometrically corrected (registered) to obtain more detailed information and identify the change. The standard supervised classifier was performed to the satellite images such as the Maximum Likelihood, Minimum Distance-to-mean and Parallelepiped. High overall accuracy (>80%) and Kappa coefficient (>0.80) was achieved by the Maximum Likelihood classifier in this study. An empirical relationship between the distribution of the CH4 and land cover was established with high correlation coefficient (R) and low root-mean-square-error (RMS) values. This study provided useful information for global warming information over a tropical region. Some advantages and limitations of this satellite from space are illustrated in this study.

Stream: Scientific Evidence

Paper: A paper has not yet been submitted.

Lim Hwee San is a lecturer at the school of physics, Universiti Sains Malaysia. He obtained his B.Sc. from USM in Geophysics at 2001 and M.Sc. from USM in remote sensing at 2003. He obtained his Ph.D in environmental remote sensing from USM in 2006. His research interests are remote sensing applications for water quality monitoring, air quality monitoring, land surface properties and digital images classification. He is a Member of International Society for Optical Engineering, US.

Mohd. Zubir Mat Jafri is a lecturer at the school of physics, Universiti Sains Malaysia. He obtained his B.Sc. in Physics (1984) from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, his M.Sc. in microprocessor technology and application (1991) from Brighton Polytechnic, UK, and his Ph.D. from University College of Swansea, Wales (1996) in research area of algorithm development fro detecting curve from digital images. He has more than 20 years teaching experience in the area of physics, optical communication, digital and analogue electronic and also microprocessors. He is also active in research work on current-based system, automation visual inspection system, digital image processing, and remote sensing. He has published more than 100 articles in these area. He is a Life Member of Malaysian Institute of Physics and Member of International Society for Optical Engineering, US.

Khiruddin Abdullah received his B.Sc. (Physics in 1982 from Bedford College, University of London, and M.Sc. (Geophysics) from Imperial College, London, in 1984, and his Ph.D. in remote sensing from the University of Dundee, Scotland in 1994. he is currently a faculty member in the School of Physics, Universiti Sains Malaysia teaching courses in geophysics and remote sensing. His research interests include remote sensing applications in marine and coastal environments. Presently, he is working on remote sensing algorithm for retrievals of water quality parameters and sea surface temperature.

Nasirun Mohd. Saleh received his B.Sc. (Geophysics) in 1982 from (USM) Geophysic and M.Sc. (Meteorology) from Reading, UK, in 1985, and M.Phil. (Boundary Layer Meteorology) from East Anglia University, UK in 1997. He is currently a Director of USM's Islamic Centre and Coordinator of Astronomy and Atmospheric Science Research Unit, Universiti Sains Malaysia He is currently a faculty member in the School of Physics, Universiti Sains Malaysia teaching courses in geophysics, meteorology and remote sensing. His research interests include meteorology applications.

Mr. Jasim Rajab is a PhD student at School of Physics, Uniersiti Sains Malaysia.