"Scores of instruments are peering down through Earth’s atmosphere, finding pollution all across the globe every day."
"On September 2, 2023, a specially equipped aircraft flew to Colstrip, Montana. On this fine late summer morning, the plane flew over the Colstrip coal-fired power plant, one of the largest and dirtiest in the U.S. The plant was generating about 1,500 megawatts of electricity per hour that day. The airplane flew back and forth in tidy parallel paths, making 12 passes over the power plant and its surroundings.
The airplane is called the Global Airborne Observatory, and it measures climate-warming pollution in pinpoint detail. Data from the flyover revealed a billowing plume of carbon dioxide coming from Colstrip’s twin smokestacks, with concentrations reaching beyond 100,000 parts per million. These measurements showed the power plant was emitting about 1.7 million pounds of CO2 an hour, which is what you’d get from burning 4.4 railcars full of coal.
The result of the flyover is a visual representation of climate-warming pollution that conveys something that numbers cannot. Most readers already know that a coal-burning power plant is a major source of CO2 emissions. But it strikes a different chord to see a plume of pollution emerging from a power plant and spreading silently over the landscape.
As the Trump administration moves to cancel greenhouse gas reporting by major polluters, a constellation of satellites and aircraft is already taking up the slack. Scores of instruments are peering down through Earth’s atmosphere, finding pollution all across the globe, every day. These programs are run by private companies, nonprofits, and governments, and most of them display their data for free so anyone can see it."
Karin Kirk reports for Yale Climate Connections September 23, 2025.
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