‘Science in the open’: A note from the developers of Open Methane

In the Open Methane project, we believe in the power of transparency and the right to public access to critical climate data. The platform you see today is the product of almost two years of collaboration between scientists, designers and developers. As we bring the tool online, we are acutely aware of the responsibility we carry in providing methane emissions data that can influence public understanding. At the same time, science conducted in the open – as we are doing – requires special diligence. We owe it to the community to be thorough and cautious in how we present our findings.

Open Methane is committed to the Open, Accessible and Auditable Data framework, which ensures the data we present is not only available to all, but can also be scrutinised, replicated and verified by others.

This is why some results on the Open Methane platform come with warnings, and why certain elements – like our Initial Emissions Estimate (Open Methane’s estimate of what is being reported under the government’s National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Scheme) – have not yet been published. We have adopted a phased approach to releasing results, allowing us to cross-check discrepancies between expected emissions and emissions based on observations to ensure that any gaps are due to gaps in public data or previously unknown emissions sources – not errors in our model or limitations in our calculations.

We strive to only make results public once we are confident that our numbers are robust and defensible. This process takes time. Satellite-based methane measurement is complex, and careful interpretation is required.

The Open Methane platform is designed to be a living tool – one that will evolve with new data, feedback, and advancements in methane monitoring science. By releasing results gradually and responsibly, we aim to meaningfully contribute to the discussion of Australia’s methane emissions, building trust and authority through transparency and rigorous science.

Thank you for joining us on this journey. We look forward to engaging with the methane monitoring community, industry, governments and NGOs as we continue to improve the tool and deepen our understanding of methane emissions in Australia.

You may encounter the following warnings while exploring the Open Methane interface:

• Terrain limitations: Areas near large water bodies or offshore sites may yield less accurate satellite measurements due to current technological limitations
• Flagged for review: Certain locations have been flagged for scientific review due to suspected data inaccuracies. We will be transparent about these anomalies when they occur. These results will remain under review until we can confidently publish them.
• Higher burden of proof required: In areas where we observe very large discrepancies between observed and expected emissions, we require additional evidence to ensure that the data reflects real-world conditions and not an artefact of model limitations.