Researchers want to find out reasons for mysterious methane 'hot spot', which has been detected from space. These researchers are from different institutions and are in the Four Corners region of the US Southwest with a suite of airborne and ground-based instruments.

A field campaign called TOPDOWN (Twin Otter Projects Defining Oil Well and Natural gas emissions) 2015, is being conducted by researchers.

According to Christian Frankenberg, a scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, "With all the ground-based and airborne resources that the different groups are bringing to the region, we have the unique chance to unequivocally solve the Four Corners mystery". Frankenberg is heading this effort by the agency.

The Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) in Boulder, Colorado; the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA); and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor are other institutions from where other investigators are working.

Earlier, researchers together with Frankenberg reported that a small area around the Four Corners intersection of Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and Utah had the highest concentration of methane compared to any part of the United States, when it comes to background levels.

An instrument on a European Space Agency satellite measured greenhouse gases and a persistent atmospheric hot spot in the area between 2003 and 2009 was observed. The amount of methane measured by the satellite was found to be much higher than what was estimated earlier.

The observations of satellite were not revealed in detail to tell about the actual sources of the methane in the Four Corners.

CIRES scientist Gabrielle Pétron, one of the mission's investigators said that if the methane detected by the satellite could be verified and its sources are detected; decision-makers will be able to get important information.