Monitoring Methane Emissions
High-Altitude Balloon Launch and Drone Flight for Gas Leak Detection
Introduction
Methane:
Methane is a greenhouse gas known as a short-lived climate pollutant. Although Methane remains in the atmosphere for a much shorter period of time than other climate pollutants, its impacts can be thousands of times greater than other destructive gases like carbon dioxide. At least 25% of today's global warming is attributed to methane released from anthropogenic activities.
"Methane is more than 25 times as potent as carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere." - EPA
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China
India
United States
Russia
Brazil
Top methane emitting countries in the world.
Aliso Canyon Gas Leak
Background:
An image from an infrared camera of the Aliso Canyon gas leak.
The largest natural gas leak recorded in the United States is the Aliso Canyon (Porter Ranch) gas leak. About 97,000 tonnes of methane and 7,300 tonnes of ethane were released into the atmosphere and contaminated groundwater.
Although it occurred late October 2015, SoCalGas was only able to seal the gas leak 4 months later. SoCalGas's lack of monitoring cost 1.8 billion dollars in settlement payments and significant environmental damages. Now, about 7 years later, we aim to monitor the previously neglected gas emissions in hopes of preventing future gas leaks.
NASA TechRise
Introduction:
The NASA TechRise Student Challenge encourages students in the United States to design, build, and launch experiments on high-altitude balloon flights.
Students submit design proposals and solutions. Winning teams are each rewarded $1,500 to build their payloads and are secured a designated spot on a NASA-sponsored high-altitude balloon flight. This challenge works to inspire students to explore Earth's atmosphere, coding, climate, electronics, and more.
Hypothesis:
If we send methane sensors up on a high-altitude balloon over oil and gas well fields, we will be able to detect methane gas in the stratosphere.
Map of gas wells within the possible vicinity the balloon could fly depending on wind patterns.
Design Solution
We built two separate design solutions. We built our payload and a proof of concept. Due to several issues with flying a high-altitude balloon at our launch site, our team opted to use a drone for the proof of concept.
High-Altitude Balloon Launch
Design Animation:
Computer-aided design animation of the South Dakota payload.
Design Components:
Electronics schematic for the high altitude payload. The payload receives power from the balloon through the NASA-provided Payload Interface Board which sends data and power to the M4 Express Microcontroller. The microcontroller collects methane and VOC data that is sent to a microSD card. An external mini dashcam is also used for imagery that is stored on a separate microSD card.
Final Product:
Image of our final product we shipped to NASA's TechRise team.
Awaiting Results:
We shipped our payload to NASA's TechRise team in South Dakota on October 19th and are anticipating results.
Site Suitability Analysis:
Balloon Trajectory Path:
We used multiple online balloon trajectory simulators to get a projection of our balloon flight path.
Airspace:
FAA airspace classes mapped in ArcGIS Online.
Drone Flight
Design Animation:
Computer-aided design animation of the local drone payload.
Design Components:
Electronics schematic for low altitude payload. Arduino MKR Carrier provides power and writes all data to a MicroSD Card on the MKR Environmental Shield. The data stream includes methane concentrations from the MQ5 sensor, CO2 and VOC data from the SGP 30 sensor, and GPS Data from the MKR GPS unit.
December 13th Launch
We attached a flight station to the Inspire 2 UAV to simulate the launch on December 13th, 2022. This served as our control flight to test our components and system before flying in Aliso Canyon.
Flight Plan:
Overview of the drone's pre-mapped and planned flight to take photos and collect data on December 13th, 2022.
Orthomosaic created by merging drone flight images.
3D point cloud model of the December 13th, 2022 drone flight.
Results:
Community Impact:
Our analysis of school areas reveals a heightened concentration– still within safe levels– but still surprising. We hypothesize that this is because of gas grills used in our cafeterias that may lead to increased methane levels.
January 6th Launch
We attached a flight station to the Inspire 2 UAV to simulate the launch on January 6th, 2023. After identifying open air space, we flew this drone over Aliso Canyon.
Aliso Canyon
We flew our drone in the Porter Ranch community of Aliso Canyon.
Aliso Canyon Oil Field/Natural Gas Storage Facility Located
The concentration of oil wells is located about 3.2 miles away from our launch site.
Landfill
To the east is a landfill that contributes to methane emissions as a result of decomposition.
Because of the close proximity to the Aliso Canyon Oil Field and Landfill, we expected to find methane during our flights.
Flight Plan:
Overview of the drone's pre-mapped and planned flight to take photos and collect data on January 6th, 2023.
Results:
Community Impact:
Our results verify that the residential areas of the Porter Ranch community are safe to live in. The concentration of methane is within a safe range, indicating no active methane leaks.
We developed a low cost solution to monitoring methane levels in areas at high risk.
We have identified eight suitable locations (mapped below) between the residential community and gas well field to install our payloads onto posts to continuously monitor methane levels.
Methane Monitors
California State University's Citizen Science Program is funding our project through National Geographic. When high levels of methane are detected, the sensors will alert residents through an app and will notify SoCalGas' emergency hotline (1-800-427-2200).
Esri Forum
We presented our project at the 2022 Esri Ocean, Weather, and Climate GIS Forum.
Conclusion
We plan to continue surveying both the Porter Ranch community and our school to ensure that our communities are staying safe and to prevent undetected gas leaks from going unnoticed.
