Publications

2025

• Varon, D. J., Jacob, D. J., Estrada, L. A., Balasus, N., East, J. D., Pendergrass, D. C., Chen, Z., Sulprizio, M., Omara, M., Gautam, R., Barkley, Z. R., Cardoso-Saldaña, F. J., Reidy, E. K., Kamdar, H., Sherwin, E. D., Biraud, S. C., Jervis, D., Pandey, S., Worden, J. R., Bowman, K. W., Maasakkers, J. D., and Kleinberg, R. L.: Seasonality and declining intensity of methane emissions from the Permian and nearby US oil and gas basins, (preprint), in review, 2025.

• Nesser, H., Bowman, K. W., Thill, M. D., Varon, D. J., Randles, C. A., Tewari, A., Cardoso-Saldaña, F. J., Reidy, E., Maasakkers, J. D., and Jacob, D. J.: Predicting and correcting the influence of boundary conditions in regional inverse analyses, (preprint), in review, 2025.

• He, M., Jacob, D. J., Estrada, L. A., Varon, D. J., Sulprizio, M., Balasus, N., East, J. D., Penn, E., Pendergrass, D., Chen, Z., Mooring, T., Maasakkers, J. D., Brodrick, P., Frankenberg, C., Bowman, K. W., and Bruhwiler, L.: Attributing 2019–2024 methane growth using TROPOMI satellite observations, (preprint), in review, 2025.

• Wang, X., Jacob, D. J., Nesser, H., Balasus, N., Estrada, L. A., Sulprizio, M., Cusworth, D. H., Scarpelli, T. R., Chen, Z., East, J. D., and Varon, D. J.: Quantifying urban and landfill methane emissions in the United States using TROPOMI satellite data, (preprint), in review 2025.

• Cusworth, D. H., Bon, D. M., Varon, D. J., Ayasse, A. K., Asner, G. P., Heckler, J., Sherwin, E. D., Biraud, S. C., and Duren, R. M: Duration of Super-Emitting Oil and Gas Methane Sources, (preprint), in review, Nat. Comms., 2025.

• Marjani, M., Mahdianpari, M., Varon, D. J., and Mohammadimanesh, F.: The Integration of Vision Transformers and SAM for Automated Methane Super-Emitter Detection using TROPOMI Data, submitted, 2025.

• Radman, A., Mahdianpari, M., Mohammadimanesh, F., and Varon, D. J.: SAM4CH4: Zero-Shot Methane Plume Mapping with Segment Anything and Vision-Language Models, submitted to IEEE Trans. Geo. Rem. Sens., 2025.

• Pendergrass, D. C., Jacob, D. J., Balasus, N., Estrada, L., Varon, D. J., East, J. D., He, M., Mooring, T. A., Penn, E., Nesser, H., and Worden, J. R.: Trends and seasonality of 2019–2023 global methane emissions inferred from a localized ensemble transform Kalman filter (CHEEREIO v1.3.1) applied to TROPOMI satellite observations, (preprint), accepted, 2025.

• Dogniaux, M. Maasakkers, J. D., Girard, M., Jervis, D., McKeever, J., Schuit, B. J., Sharma, S., Lopez-Noreña, A., Varon, D. J., and Aben, I.: Satellite survey sheds new light on global solid waste methane emissions, (preprint), in review, Nature, 2025.

• Zhang, X., Maasakkers, J. D., Roger, J., Guanter, L., Sharma, S., Lama, S., Tol, P., Varon, D. J., Cusworth, D. H., Howell, K., Thorpe, A. K., Brodrick, P. G., and Aben, I.: Global identification of solid waste methane superemitters using hyperspectral satellites, (preprint), in review, 2025.

• Estrada, L. A., Varon, D. J., Sulprizio, M., Nesser, H., Chen, Z., Balasus, N., Hancock, S. E., He, M., East, J. D., Mooring, T. A., Oort Alonso, A., Maasakkers, J. D., Aben, I., Baray, S., Bowman, K. W., Worden, J. R., Cardoso-Saldaña, F. J., Reidy, E., and Jacob, D. J.: Integrated Methane Inversion (IMI) 2.0: an improved research and stakeholder tool for monitoring total methane emissions with high resolution worldwide using TROPOMI satellite observations, Geosci. Model Dev., 18, 3311–3330, 2025.

• Pandey, S., Worden, J., Cusworth, D., Varon, D. J., Thill, M., Jacob, D. J., and Bowman, K. W.: Relating Multi-Scale Plume Detection and Area Estimates of Methane Emissions: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis, 2025.

• Mohammadimanesh, F., Mahdianpari, M., Radman, A., Varon, D. J., Hemati, M., and Marjani, M.: Advancements in satellite-based methane point source monitoring: A systematic review, IS-PRS J. Photogramm. Remote Sens., 224, 94–112, 2025.

• Zhao, S., Zhang, Y., Zhao, S., Wang, X., and Varon, D. J.: A data-efficient deep transfer learning framework for methane super-emitter detection in oil and gas fields using the Sentinel-2 satellite, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 4035–4052, 2025.

• Hancock, S. E., Jacob, D. J., Chen, Z., Nesser, H., Davitt, A., Varon, D. J., Sulprizio, M. P., Balasus, N., Estrada, L. A., Cazorla, M., Dawidowski, L., Diez, S., East, J. D., Penn, E., Randles, C. A., Worden, J., Aben, I., Parker, R. J., and Maasakkers, J. D.: Satellite quantification of methane emissions from South American countries: a high-resolution inversion of TROPOMI and GOSAT observations, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 797–817, 2025.

• Hakkarainen, J., Ialongo, I. Varon, D. J., Kuhlmann, G. and Krol, M. C.: Linear Integrated Mass Enhancement: A method for estimating hotspot emission rates from space-based plume observations, Rem. Sens. Env., 2025.

• Balasus, N., Jacob, D. J., Maxemin, G., Jenks, C., Nesser, H., Maasakkers, J. D., Cusworth, D. H., Scarpelli, T. R., Varon, D. J., and Wang, X.: Satellite monitoring of annual US landfill methane emissions and trends, Environ. Res. Lett., 2025.
  

2024

• Harris, S. and 67 co-authors including D. J. Varon.: Methane emissions from the Nord Stream subsea pipeline leaks, Nature, 2024.

• Marjani, M., Mahdianpari, M., Radman, A., Varon, D. J., and Mohammadimanesh, F.: PRIS-MethaNet: A Novel Deep Learning Model for Landfill Methane Detection using PRISMA Satellite Data, ISPRS J. Photogramm. Remote Sens., 2024.

• Varon, D. J., Jervis, D., Pandey, S., Gallardo, S. L., Balasus, N., Yang, L. H., and Jacob, D. J.: Quantifying NOx point sources with Landsat and Sentinel-2 satellite observations of NO2 plumes, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., 2024.

• Nathan, B., Maasakkers, J. D., Naus, S., Gautam, R., Omara, M., Varon, D. J., Sulprizio, M. P., Estrada, L. A., Lorente, A., Borsdorff, T., Parker, R. J., and Aben, I.: Assessing methane emissions from collapsing Venezuelan oil production using TROPOMI, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 6845–6863, 2024.

• Dogniaux, M., Maasakkers, J. D., Varon, D. J., and Aben, I.: Report on Landsat 8 and Sentinel-2B observations of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline methane leak, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 2777–2787, 2024

• Bruno, J. H., Jervis, D., Varon, D. J., and Jacob, D. J.: U-Plume: automated algorithm for plume detection and source quantification by satellite point-source imagers, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 2625–2636, 2024.

• He, T.-L., Boyd, R. J., Varon, D. J., and Turner, A. J.: Increased methane emissions from oil and gas following the Soviet Union’s collapse, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., 2024.
  

2023

• Watine-Guiu, M., Varon, D. J., Irakulis-Loitxate, I., Balasus, N., and Jacob, D. J.: Geostationary satellite observations of extreme and transient methane emissions from oil and gas infrastructure, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., 2023.

• Schuit, B. J., Maasakkers, J. D., Bijl, P., Mahapatra, G., van den Berg, A. W., Pandey, S., Lorente, A., Borsdorff, T., Houweling, S., Varon, D. J., McKeever, J., Jervis, D., Girard, M., Irakulis-Loitxate, I., Gorroño, J., Guanter, L., Cusworth, D. H., and Aben, I.: Automated detection and monitoring of methane super-emitters using satellite data, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 9071–9098, 2023.

• Pendergrass, D. C., Jacob, D. J., Nesser, H., Varon, D. J., Sulprizio, M., Miyazaki, K., and Bowman, K. W.: CHEEREIO 1.0: a versatile and user-friendly ensemble-based chemical data assimilation and emissions inversion platform for the GEOS-Chem chemical transport model, Geosci. Model Dev., 16, 4793–4810, 2023.

• Balasus, N., Jacob, D. J., Lorente, A., Maasakkers, J. D., Parker, R. J., Boesch, H., Chen, Z., Kelp, M. M., Nesser, H., and Varon, D. J.: A blended TROPOMI+GOSAT satellite data product for atmospheric methane using machine learning to correct retrieval biases, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 3787–3807, 2023.

• Pandey, S., van Nistelrooij, M., Maasakkers, J. D., Sutar, P., Houweling, S., Varon, D. J., Tol, P., Gains, D., Worden, J., and Aben, I.: Daily detection and quantification of methane leaks using Sentinel-3: a tiered satellite observation approach with Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-5p, Rem. Sens. Env., 2023.

• Radman, A., Mahdianpari, M., Varon, D. J., and Mohammadimanesh, F.: S2MetNet: A novel dataset and deep learning benchmark for methane point source quantification using Sentinel-2 satellite imagery, Rem. Sens. Env., 2023.

• Varon, D. J., Jacob, D. J., Hmiel, B., Gautam, R., Lyon, D. R., Omara, M., Sulprizio, M., Shen, L., Pendergrass, D., Nesser, H., Qu, Z., Barkley, Z. R., Miles, N. L., Richardson, S. J., Davis, K. J., Pandey, S., Lu, X., Lorente, A., Borsdorff, T., Maasakkers, J. D., and Aben, I.: Continuous weekly monitoring of methane emissions from the Permian Basin by inversion of TROPOMI satellite observations, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 2023.

• Chen, Z., Jacob, D. J., Gautam, R., Omara, M., Stavins, R. N., Stowe, R. C., Nesser, H., Sulprizio, M. P., Lorente, A., Varon, D. J., Lu, X., Shen, L., Qu, Z., Pendergrass, D. C., and Hancock, S.: Satellite quantification of methane emissions and oil–gas methane intensities from individual countries in the Middle East and North Africa: implications for climate action, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 5945–5967, 2023.

• Lu, X., Jacob, D. J., Zhang, Y., Shen, L., Sulprizio, M. P., Maasakkers, J. D., Varon, D. J., Qu, Z., Chen, Z., Hmiel, B., Parker, R. J., Boesch, H., Wang, H., He, C., and Fan, S.: Observation-derived 2010-2019 trends in methane emissions and intensities from US oil and gas fields tied to activity metrics, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., 2023.

• Gorroño, J., Varon, D. J., Irakulis-Loitxate, I., and Guanter, L.: Understanding the potential of Sentinel-2 for monitoring methane point emissions, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 89–107, 2023.
  

2022

• Zhang, Z., Sherwin, E. D., Varon, D. J., and Brandt, A. R.: Detecting and quantifying methane emissions from oil and gas production: algorithm development with ground-truth calibration based on Sentinel-2 satellite imagery, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 7155–7169, 2022.

• Shen, L., Gautam, R., Omara, M., Zavala-Araiza, D., Maasakkers, J. D., Scarpelli, T. R., Lorente, A., Lyon, D., Sheng, J., Varon, D. J., Nesser, H., Qu, Z., Lu, X., Sulprizio, M. P., Hamburg, S. P., and Jacob, D. J.: Satellite quantification of oil and natural gas methane emissions in the US and Canada including contributions from individual basins, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 11203–11215, 2022.

• Chen, Z., Jacob, D. J., Nesser, H., Sulprizio, M. P., Lorente, A., Varon, D. J., Lu, X., Shen, L., Qu, Z., Penn, E., and Yu, X.: Methane emissions from China: a high-resolution inversion of TROPOMI satellite observations, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 10809–10826, 2022.

• Qu, Z., Jacob, D. J., Zhang, Y., Shen, L., Varon, D. J., Lu, X., Scarpelli, T., Bloom, A., Worden, J., and Parker, R. J.: Attribution of the 2020 surge in atmospheric methane by inverse analysis of GOSAT observations, Environ. Res. Lett., 17, 9, 2022.

• Maasakkers, J. D., Varon, D. J., Elfarsd´ottir, A., McKeever, J., Jervis, D., Mahapatra, G., Pandey, S., Lorente, A., Borsdorff, T., Foorthuis, L. R., Schuit, B. J., Tol, P., van Kempen, T. A., van Hees, R., and Aben, I.: Using satellites to uncover large methane emissions from landfills, Sci. Adv., 8, 32, 2022.

• Jacob, D. J., Varon, D. J., Cusworth, D. H., Dennison, P. E., Frankenberg, C., Gautam, R., Guanter, L., Kelley, J., McKeever, J., Ott, L. E., Poulter, B., Qu, Z., Thorpe, A. K., Worden, J. R., and Duren, R. M.: Quantifying methane emissions from the global scale down to point sources using satellite observations of atmospheric methane, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 9617–9646, 2022.

• Varon, D.J., Jacob, D. J., Sulprizio, M., Estrada, L. A., Downs, W. B., Shen, L., Hancock, S. E., Nesser, H., Qu, Z., Penn, E., Chen, Z., Lu, X., Lorente, A., Tewari, A., and Randles, C. A.: Integrated Methane Inversion (IMI 1.0): A user-friendly, cloud-based facility for inferring high-resolution methane emissions from TROPOMI satellite observations, Geosci. Mod. Dev., 15, 5787–5805, 2022.

• Sánchez-García, E., Gorroño, J., Irakulis-Loitxate, I., Varon, D. J., and Guanter, L.: Mapping methane plumes at very high spatial resolution with the WorldView-3 satellite, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 1657–1674, 2022.
  

2021

• Guanter, L., Irakulis-Loitxate, I., Gorroño, J., Sánchez-García, E., Cusworth, D. H., Varon, D. J., Cogliati, S., and Colombo, R.: Mapping methane point emissions with the PRISMA spaceborne imaging spectrometer, Rem. Sens. Env., 2021.

• Irakulis, I., Guanter, L., Liu, Y., Varon, D. J., Maasakkers, J. D., Zhang, Y., Thorpe, A. K., Duren, R. M., Frankenberg, C., Lyon, D., Cusworth, D. H., Zhang, Y., Seg, K., Gorroño, J., Sánchez-García, E., Sulprizio, M. P., Cao, K., Zhu, H., Liang, J., Li, X., Aben, I., and Jacob, D. J.: Satellite-based Survey of Extreme Methane Emissions in the Permian Basin, Sci. Adv., 7, 27, 2021.

• Lyon, D. R., Hmiel, B., Gautam, R., Omara, M., Roberts, K. A., Barkley, Z. R., Davis, K. J., Miles, N. L., Monteiro, V. C., Richardson, S. J., Conley, S., Smith, M. L., Jacob, D. J., Shen, L., Varon, D. J., Deng, A., Rudelis, X., Sharma, N., Story, K. T., Brandt, A. R., Kang, M., Kort, E. A., Marchese, A. J., and Hamburg, S. P.: Concurrent variation in oil and gas methane emissions and oil price during the COVID-19 pandemic, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 6605–6626, 2021.

• Varon, D. J., Jervis, D., McKeever, J., Spence, I., Gains, D., and Jacob, D. J.: High-frequency monitoring of anomalous methane point sources with multispectral Sentinel-2 satellite observations, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 2771–2785, 2021.
  

2020

• Jervis, D., McKeever, J., Durak, B. O. A., Sloan, J. J., Gains, D., Varon, D. J., Ramier, A., Strupler, M., and Tarrant, E.: The GHGSat-D Imaging Spectrometer, Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss., 14, 2127–2140, 2021.

• Cusworth, D. H., Duren, R. M., Thorpe, A. K., Pandey, S., Maasakkers, J. D., Aben, I., Jervis, D., Varon, D. J., Jacob, D., J., Randles, C. A., Smith, M., Gautam, R., Omara, M., Schade, G., Dennison, P. E., Frankenberg, C., Gordon, D., Lopinto, E., and Miller, C. E.: Multi-satellite imaging of a gas well blowout enables quantification of total methane emissions, Geophys. Res. Lett., 48, 2, 2020.

• Varon, D. J., Jacob, D. J., McKeever, J., and Jervis, D.: Quantifying time-averaged methane emissions from individual coal mine vents with GHGSat-D satellite observations, Environ. Sci. Tech., 54, 16, 10246–10253, 2020.

• Zhang, Y., Gautam, R., Pandey, S., Omara, M., Maasakkers, J. D., Sadavarte, P., Lyon, D., Nesser, H., Sulprizio, M. P., Varon, D. J., Zhang, R., Houweling, S., Zavala-Araiza, D., Alvarez, R. A., Lorente, A., Hamburg, S. P., Aben, I., and Jacob, D. J.: Quantifying methane emissions from the largest oil producing basin in the U.S. from space, Science Advances, 6, 17, 2020.
  

2019

• Cusworth, D. H., Jacob, D. J., Varon, D. J., Chan Miller, C., Liu, X., Chance, K., Thorpe, A. K., Duren, R. M., Miller, C. E., Thompson, D. R., Frankenberg, C., Guanter, L., and Randles, C. A.: Potential of next-generation imaging spectrometers to detect and quantify methane point sources from space, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 5655–5668, 2019.

• Varon, D. J., McKeever, J., Jervis, D., Maasakkers, J. D., Pandey, S., Houweling, S., Aben, I., Scarpelli, T., and Jacob, D. J.: Satellite discovery of anomalously large methane point sources from oil/gas production, Geophys. Res. Lett., 46, 22, 2019.
  

2018

• Varon, D. J., Jacob, D. J., McKeever, J., Jervis, D., Durak, B. O. A., Xia, Y., and Huang, Y.: Quantifying methane point sources from fine-scale satellite observations of atmospheric methane plumes, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 5673–5686, 2018.