Methane levels for March 2012 are highest above ESAS

NASA has made available the monthly methane levels for March 2012. As the polar projection below shows, extremely high levels of methane are concentrated above the East Siberian Arctic Shelf (ESAS).

The image below further shows how the anomalies have increased over the years, especially on the Northern Hemisphere; note the wide gaps between anomalies on the Northern Hemisphere (blue) and the Southern Hemisphere (green) over the past few months. 

The images, based on AIRS NASA data, were produced by Dr. Leonid Yurganov, Senior Research Scientist, JCET, at University of Maryland - Baltimore County. For further images, see Dr. Yurganov's archive at asl.umbc.edu/pub/yurganov/methane 

High methane levels in Arctic - April 2012

Below are two images produced with NASA GES DISC Giovanni data system, showing methane levels for early April 2012.

The top image shows where methane levels exceed 1.9 parts per million.

The image below is a polar projection; note the different scale on the right, which is the default one that is automatically calculated and exceeds 2 parts per million.

Below the same image as the above one, this time with the same custom scale as the top image. 

Below is an animation showing the recent surface temperature anomalies 

This animation is a 774 kb file and may take some time to fully load. 

Methane levels at Mauna Loa, Hawaii (directly below) and Barrow, Alaska (further down below).