Remote Sensing of Atmospheric Methane
The gas industry has the unique challenge that methane is leaking not just from the source of production but from their vast transmission network. Remote sensing provides an enticing solution to patrol and monitor large areas rapidly and efficiently. This has led to the development of many detection technologies, in SWIR, MWIR, and LWIR wavelengths, that are being deployed on drones, aircraft, and satellites. The challenge for these systems is certifying detection limits and validating quantification under real world conditions.
There is a lack of standards and controls for the scaled deployment for remote sensing of methane. There is currently no way to verify and certify that any given patrol is detecting methane at the agreed standard.
Condor provides a robust method to verify that sensors are meeting the standards necessary to move the industry forward. We believe the Condor’s CalBridge system is an easy and cost-effective way to establish these controls. The static plume concept was developed by the US Department of Energy and successfully deployed for SWIR and LWIR remote sensing hyperspectral applications. The Condor CalBridge system supports reflective, emissive, and laser-based optical approaches for methane calibration. Condor is licensing this technology to provide calibration as a service that includes fielding the physical hardware and gas sources required for in situ measurements under your remote sensing platform.