Night-time infrared passes from the VIIRS sensors on NOAA-20 and NOAA-21 picked out 4 persistent heat clusters in this flare field between 29 August and 27 September 2026. Three match sites in the EOG flare registry (VNF) annual summaries; one does not, with no registered site within 2 km. That cluster, at 61.406, 112.8891, was lit on 16 of 30 nights, peaking at 44.39 MW. A later pass on 30 September again found heat of at least 5 MW at the same spot, at 9.04 MW — confirming the heat is still there, not what is making it.
It may not be a new flare. Thermal sensors cannot separate a gas flare from an industrial furnace or kiln, and "new" here only means absent from the 2023 and 2024 annual registries — a flare too small or too often cloud-covered for those products would also look new. Cold venting of gas is invisible to these sensors entirely. The finding names a place, not an operator.
What would change our mind: a matching entry in a later VNF annual summary, high-resolution imagery showing a building or kiln rather than a flare stack, or the heat ending as cloud clears.
Written by AI, then checked by a separate reviewer before publication. Every claim points at the evidence below.