Giant Methane Cloud

I know I've included methane madness in my blog somewhere before but there is more methane news, for real, maybe even right on our horizon. There is a big (half the size of the entire state of Connecticut) cloud of methane out there in our atmosphere and scientists have lost track of it. The source of the methane is unknown (though I have a few ideas after enchilada Tuesdays at our house) and the cloud has been present over the southwest (Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah) for six years (2003-09) as tracked by a European satellite. Methane is 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide and can be quite a threat to the environment. I already knew the latter; once again I think enchilada Tuesdays. How has a methane mass of these proportions been lost, one might wonder? Well unfortunately, the European satellite used to collect the data “is no longer in commission.” However, Japan has agreed to capture images of the region where the methane mass was last located with their GOSAT satellite. Hopefully it has dissipated rather than moved on!