A new aerial approach for quantifying and attributing methane emissions: implementation and validation

Dooley, Jonathan F.; Minschwaner, Kenneth; Dubey, Manvendra K.; El Abbadi, Sahar H.; Sherwin, Evan D.; Meyer, Aaron G.; Follansbee, Emily; Lee, James E.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5091-2024

Articles | Volume 17, issue 17

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5091-2024

© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5091-2024

© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 17, issue 17

Research article

|

04 Sep 2024

Research article |

| 04 Sep 2024

A new aerial approach for quantifying and attributing methane emissions: implementation and validation

Jonathan F. Dooley, Kenneth Minschwaner, Manvendra K. Dubey, Sahar H. El Abbadi, Evan D. Sherwin, Aaron G. Meyer, Emily Follansbee, and James E. Lee

Data sets

nmt_uas_background_estimate J. F. Dooley https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13309038

nmt_uas_public J. F. Dooley https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13309002

nmt_uas_wind_direction J. F. Dooley https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13309036

Short summary

Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas originating from both natural and human activities. We describe a new uncrewed aerial system (UAS) designed to measure methane emission rates over a wide range of scales. This system has been used for direct quantification of point sources and distributed emitters over scales of up to 1 km. The system uses simultaneous measurements of methane and ethane to distinguish between different kinds of natural and human-related emission sources.