Articles | Volume 18, issue 23
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-7153-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-7153-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| Highlight paper
| 
02 Dec 2025
Research article | Highlight paper |
| 02 Dec 2025
| 02 Dec 2025
A helicopter-based mass balance approach for quantifying methane emissions from industrial activities, applied for coal mine ventilation shafts in Poland
Institut für Physik der Atmosphäre, DLR – Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany
Institut für Physik der Atmosphäre, DLR – Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany
Michael Lichtenstern
Institut für Physik der Atmosphäre, DLR – Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany
Falk Pätzold
Institute of Flight Guidance, TUBS – Technische Universität Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany
Lutz Bretschneider
Institute of Flight Guidance, TUBS – Technische Universität Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany
Andreas Schlerf
Institute of Flight Guidance, TUBS – Technische Universität Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany
Sven Bollmann
Institute of Flight Guidance, TUBS – Technische Universität Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany
Astrid Lampert
Institute of Flight Guidance, TUBS – Technische Universität Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany
Jarosław Nęcki
Faculty of Physics and Applied Computer Science, AGH – University of Kraków, Kraków, Poland
Paweł Jagoda
Faculty of Physics and Applied Computer Science, AGH – University of Kraków, Kraków, Poland
Justyna Swolkień
Faculty of Civil Engineering and Recourse Management, AGH – University of Kraków, Kraków, Poland
Dominika Pasternak
Wolfson Atmospheric Chemistry Laboratories, University of York, York, UK
now at: Flight Experiments, DLR – Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany
Robert A. Field
UNEP's International Methane Emissions Observatory, Paris, France
Anke Roiger
Institut für Physik der Atmosphäre, DLR – Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany
Data sets
Atmospheric methane and meteorological observations of coal mine ventilation shaft emissions with the helicopter-borne probe HELiPOD during the Methane-To-Go Poland campaign 2022 Heidi Huntrieser et al. https://doi.org/10.18160/YK4Y-NHHW
Executive editor
This work introduces a new measurement platform and approach for quantifying methane emissions, which can compliment existing UAV and aircraft measurements. With growing global attention on methane reduction, there is a need to develop, test, and deploy multiple technologies that can both quantify emissions and validate bottom-up inventory estimates. Airborne surveys play a vital role in this toolkit, and the helicopter payload described in this study offers a method that is more flexible and agile than light aircraft.
This work introduces a new measurement platform and approach for quantifying methane emissions,...
Short summary
We introduce a helicopter-borne mass balance approach, utilizing the HELiPOD platform, to accurately quantify methane (CH4) emissions from coal mining activities. The comparison of our top-down mass flux estimates (up to 3000 kg h−1) against those from bottom-up in-mine CH4 safety sensors revealed very good agreement. This approach also has a great potential in quantifying emission source strengths (down to 20 kg h−1) from a wide range of other CH4 emitters (e.g. landfills, oil & gas industry).
We introduce a helicopter-borne mass balance approach, utilizing the HELiPOD platform, to...
