Japan to track greenhouse gas emissions via commercial flights

(MENAFN) Japan will begin tracking greenhouse gas emissions using spectrometers installed on commercial passenger planes, a global first as the country intensifies efforts to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, according to reports.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the nation’s largest airline group, ANA Holdings, are collaborating to commercialize high-resolution atmospheric monitoring by collecting data during regular passenger flights.

The partners announced Tuesday that a commercial ANA Boeing 737 has been fitted with a JAXA-developed device capable of detecting atmospheric particles, including carbon dioxide, through a cabin window. A second unit is scheduled for installation by March, with further deployments planned across ANA’s fleet.

Spectrometers measure how gases absorb sunlight at specific wavelengths, providing more efficient detection of emission concentrations compared with traditional mid-flight air sampling.

"It's a technology that allows us to see how atmospheric components behave, as if you were taking pictures looking down from an airplane," said Hiroshi Suto, JAXA’s associate senior chief officer of Earth Observation Missions, during a news briefing in Tokyo.

JAXA has monitored greenhouse gases via its Ibuki satellite since 2009 and has partnered with ANA since 2020 to develop in-cabin observation technology. Unlike satellites, which observe from around 600 kilometers (372 miles) above Earth, data collected from ANA flights at approximately 10 kilometers in altitude enables more detailed and localized monitoring.

"The ability to observe the entire surface area provides the advantage of enabling detailed measurements of emissions and forest absorption rates," said Ayako Matsumoto, space business development manager at ANA Holdings.

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