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Fire Emission Measurements Using Lightweight Sensors and Samplers on Unmanned Aerial Systems
Citation:
Aurell, J., A. Holder, Bill Mitchell, T. Hoefen, V. Chirayath, J. Johnston, AND B. Gullett. Fire Emission Measurements Using Lightweight Sensors and Samplers on Unmanned Aerial Systems. The Fire Continuum Conference, Missoula,MN, May 21 - 24, 2018.
Impact/Purpose:
This poster presents the development and performance of aerial sampling instruments developed and tested at EPA to an audience of federal forest researchers, academia, and perhaps state government representatives.
Description:
Emission measurement systems making use of miniaturized sensors and samplers have been developed for portable and aerial sampling from aerial platforms. Small, shoebox-sized systems called “Kolibri”, weighing 3-4.5 kg, have been deployed on USGS- and NASA-flown unmanned aerial systems (UASs, or “drones”) to characterize plume emissions from open area combustion sources. A 5 m diameter, tethered, helium-filled aerostat (balloon) has been used to loft a larger instrument system (20+ kg) called the “Flyer” into combustion plumes. Both the Kolibri and Flyer use sensors to measure CO and CO2 and miniature samplers for PM2.5/10, PAHs, VOCs, SVOCs, carbonyls, black/elemental/organic carbon (BC/EC/OC), inorganic halogens, and real time BC. New capabilities are being added including IR cameras, NOx sensors, and a real time sampler for particle size distributions. Telemetry systems on both the Kolibri and transmit data to the ground crew to enable flight, battery, and sample monitoring. The Flyer has been used to determine emission factors from a variety of open burning sources including oil burns, waste pile burns, agricultural field burning, prescribed wildland fires, and open burning/open detonation of military ordnance. The Kolibri has been successfully and safely deployed in five campaigns to determine emission factors from prescribed fires and open burning and detonation demilitarization processes. This abstract has been reviewed in accordance with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency policy and approved for publication.