Arctic permafrost stores vast amounts of methane (CH4) in subsurface reservoirs. Thawing permafrost creates areas for this potent greenhouse gas to be released to the atmosphere. Identifying 'hot spots' of methane flux on a local scale has been limited by the spatial scales of traditional ground-based or satellite-based methane-sampling methods. Here we present methane data from along the coast of Barter Island, Alaska that was produced with an Unmanned Aerial System and an off-the-shelf, cost-effective methane sensor. The data was recorded in Sept., 2017 as part of a larger Arctic coastal erosion investigation study by the U.S. Geological Survey. The datasets contain latitude, longitude and CH4 (ppm).

Supplement to: Oberle, Ferdinand K; Gibbs, Ann E; Richmond, Bruce M; Erikson, Li H; Waldrop, Mark P; Swarzenski, Peter W (2019): Towards determining spatial methane distribution on Arctic permafrost bluffs with an unmanned aerial system. SN Applied Sciences, 1(236)