Methane measuring drones could take the guesswork out of farm emissions

Ready to launch: Scientist Christian Stiegler with a methane drone. (Image: Supplied)

Mon, 21 Jul 2025

New Zealand atmospheric scientists say they are hot on the trail of the “holy grail” of reliable on-farm methane measurements.However, farmers are likely to rely on estimation methods for the near future at least.Peter Sperlich, an atmospheric scientist, and Christian Stiegler, a greenhouse gas scientist, both worked for the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Niwa) and, since July 1, for the new public research organisation Earth Sciences NZ.They have been working on scaling down Niwa’s methane measurem...

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