Data Quality Aware Flight Mission Design for Fugitive Methane Sniffing using Fixed Wing sUAS

Abstract

This paper describes a data quality aware framework for developing a repeatable flight mission design for fugitive methane sniffing missions using fixed wing small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS) in rural areas. The design outlines general aircraft requirements & performance characteristics as well as overviews required sensors and their performance & data quality considerations. Using Gaussian plume models, atmospheric stability and detection experiments from previous works - we outline a mission design that focuses on detection of downwind plume using a two flux plane flight path. This mission design aims to aid future efforts in improving flux quantification accuracy, uncertainty and comparison between individual experiments.