Ground-to-Air Gas Emission Rate Inferred from Measured Concentration Rise within a Disturbed Atmospheric Surface Layer

Abstract

Abstract In reference to previously observed concentrations of methane released from a source enclosed by a windbreak, this paper examines a refined “inverse dispersion” approach for estimating the rate of emission Q from a small ground-level source, when the surface-layer winds near that source are highly disturbed. The inverse dispersion method under investigation is based on simulation of turbulent trajectories between sources and detectors, using a Lagrangian stochastic (LS) model. At issue is whether it is advantageous to recognize the flow as being disturbed and use a computed approximation to that disturbed flow to drive a fully three-dimensional LS model (3D-LS), or whether it suffices to ignore flow disturbance and adopt an LS model attuned to the horizontally homogeneous upwind flow (MO-LS, as Monin–Obukhov similarity theory describes the vertical inhomogeneity). It is demonstrated that both approaches estimate the source strength to within a factor of 2 of the true value, irrespectively of the location of the concentration measurement, and moreover that both approaches estimate the source strength correctly (to within the experimental uncertainty), when based on concentrations measured far away from the immediate influence of obstacles in the flow. However, if the concentration detector is positioned close to the flow-disturbing obstacles, then inverse dispersion based on 3D-LS provides a better estimate of source strength than does MO-LS.