Apparatus for imaging hydrogen sulfide plume and method of the same

A method for detecting hydrogen sulfide contained in a gas plume, the method comprising:

• capturing an image of a scene that includes the gas plume by an infrared imager, the infrared imager including a sensor to detect the image, a bandpass filter installed in the infrared imager, the image of the scene passing through the bandpass filter, the bandpass filter having a spectral window, a width of the spectral window being in a range of 100 nm to 300 nm, the spectral window positioned in a wavelength range selected from the group consisting of a wavelength range between 2.5 μm and 2.8 μm, a wavelength range between 1.5 μm and 2.0 μm, and a wavelength range between 7.0 μm and 10.0 μm;
• obtaining an intensity of a background, which does not include the gas plume, from the image of the scene;
• obtaining an intensity of the gas plume from the image of the scene;
• calculating intensity difference between the intensities of the background and the gas plume;
• calculating a relative contrast that is the intensity difference divided by the intensity of the background;
• and
• determining whether the relative contrast is higher than a predetermined value.