Systems and methods for detecting sources of particle emissions

A method for detecting sources of particle emissions, the method comprising:

• with at least a first particle emission detector, detecting particles emitted by particle-emitting sources and outputting detector output signals corresponding to particle emission count rates;
• with at least a first spatial information sensor that senses spatial information relating to movement of moving carriers over time relative to a location of the first particle emission detector and outputting sense signals containing first spatial domain information;
• receiving a particle emission count rate and the first spatial domain information in processing logic;
• and
• in the processing logic, performing a data-fusion algorithm that fuses information obtained from the received particle emission count rate with the received first spatial domain information and determining whether a moving carrier is carrying a particle-emitting source based at least in part on the fused information, where the information obtained from the particle emission count rate comprises second spatial domain information obtained by the data-fusion algorithm by converting the received particle emission count rate into second spatial domain information, and where the data-fusion algorithm comprises a correlation algorithm and a detection algorithm, the correlation algorithm correlating the first spatial domain information with the second spatial domain information to determine whether the moving carrier correlates to the particle emission count rate, the detection algorithm determining whether the received particle emission count rate indicates that a particle-emitting source has been detected by the detection algorithm.

A nontransitory computer readable medium comprising a computer program for detecting sources of particle emissions, the computer program being embodied on the nontransitory computer readable medium and comprising computer instructions for execution by processing logic, the computer program comprising:

• a first computer code portion that receives a particle emission count rate from at least a particle emission detector that detects particles emitted by particle-emitting sources and outputs detector output signals corresponding to particle emission count rates;
• a second computer code portion that receives first spatial domain information from at least a first spatial information sensor that senses spatial information relating to movement of moving carriers over time relative to a location of the first particle emission detector and outputs sense signals containing the first spatial domain information;
• and
• a third computer code portion that performs a data-fusion algorithm that fuses information obtained from the particle emission count rate received by the first computer code portion with the first spatial domain information received by the second computer code portion and determines whether a moving carrier is carrying a particle-emitting source based at least in part on the fused information, where the information obtained from the particle emission count rate comprises second spatial domain information obtained by the data-fusion algorithm by converting the received particle emission count rate into second spatial domain information, and where the data-fusion algorithm comprises a correlation algorithm and a detection algorithm, the correlation algorithm correlating the first spatial domain information with the second spatial domain information to determine whether the moving carrier correlates to the particle emission count rate, the detection algorithm determining whether the received particle emission count rate indicates that a particle-emitting source has been detected by the detection algorithm.