Hub and spoke system for detecting and locating gas leaks
AssigneesThe Regents of the University of Colorado, a body corporate, Government of the United States of America, AS Represented By the Secretary of Commerce
InventorsGregory B. Rieker, Ian Coddington, Nathan R. Newbury, Kuldeep Prasad, Anna Karion
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Abstract
A system for detecting gas leaks and determining their location and size. A data gathering portion of the system utilizes a hub and spoke configuration to collect path-integrated spectroscopic data over multiple open paths around an area. A processing portion of the system applies a high-resolution transport model together with meteorological data of the area to generate an influence function of possible leak locations on gas detector measurement paths, and applies an inversion model to the influence function and the spectroscopic data to generate gas source size and location.
Claims20
A system that determines a location and a size of a gas source within a geographic area, comprising:
- an optical source configured to transmit an optical beam to an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) while the UAV flies through the geographic area;
- an optical detector configured to generate path-integrated spectroscopic data from the optical beam after the UAV retroreflects the optical beam toward the optical detector while flying through the geographic area;
- and
- a processor configured to receive the path-integrated spectroscopic data, apply a high-resolution transport model to meteorological data for the geographic area, and apply an inversion model to the high-resolution transport model and the received path-integrated spectroscopic data to determine the location and the size of the gas source.
A method that determines a location and a size of a gas source within a geographic area, comprising:
- collecting path-integrated spectroscopic data from an optical beam retroreflected by a UAV while the UAV flies through the geographic area;
- and
- determining the location and the size of the gas source by:
- applying a high-resolution transport model to meteorological data for the geographic area;
- and
- applying an inversion model to the high-resolution transport model and the collected path-integrated spectroscopic data.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.