Nicholas F. Aubut, Matthew C. Laderer, Shuting Yang, Robert W. Talbot, Levi M. Golston, Mark A. Zondlo, Paul D. Wehnert, and James Rutherford
27th World Gas Conference, June 25-29, 2018, Washington, DC
We integrated backscatter laser technology with a small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle to create a new platform for natural gas leak survey and quantification. Simulated flights with the sensor system
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deployed on a rotating 10m diameter boom successfully located and quantified emission rates from a known methane source. Actual low-altitude flights conducting raster pattern surveys of wellhead
infrastructure located, visualized, and estimated flux from leaks smaller than 5 scfh.
Nicholas F. Aubut, Matthew C. Laderer, Shuting Yang, Robert W. Talbot, Levi M. Golston, Mark A. Zondlo, Paul D. Wehnert, and James Rutherford
27th World Gas Conference, June 25-29, 2018, Washington, DC
We integrated backscatter laser technology with a small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle to create a new platform for natural gas leak survey and quantification. Simulated flights with the sensor system
…
deployed on a rotating 10m diameter boom successfully located and quantified emission rates from a known methane source. Actual low-altitude flights conducting raster pattern surveys of wellhead
infrastructure located, visualized, and estimated flux from leaks smaller than 5 scfh.
Scanning, standoff laser-based leak imaging and quantification
Nicholas F. Aubut, Richard T. Wainner, Matthew C. Laderer, Paul D. Wehnert, and James Rutherford
27th World Gas Conference, June 25-29, 2018, Washington, DC
This paper reports a novel quantitative methane plume imaging tool, based on active near-infrared backscatter laser sensing technology. It integrates a laser sensor with a video camera in a future handheld
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package to create a highly sensitive imager that also quantifies emission rate. It provides colorized quantified images of path-integrated methane concentration independent of background. The images depict methane plumes overlaid on a visible camera image of the background. This new tool addresses the need for reliable, robust, low-cost sensors to detect, image, and quantify fugitive methane emissions, enabling operators to prioritize repairs. We built a prototype platform that demonstrated quantitative performance in the laboratory and municipal field tests. Based on measured signal-to-noise ratios, it can quantify emissions as small as 0.25 scfh in seconds.
Development of the Virtual Source Training Toolkit for physically accurate simulation of the response of handheld radiation detectors
Development of the Virtual Source Training Toolkit for physically accurate simulation of the response of handheld radiation detectors
John Wright, Kirill Shokhirev, Eric Rappeport, Daniel Brown and Bogdan R. Cosofret
SPIE Defense and Commercial Sensing, Orlando, FL, 15 - 19 April 2018
Law enforcement officers and public safety personnel are a critical component of the Global Nuclear Detection Architecture, and would benefit from additional opportunities to train for this mission in realistic threat scenarios. Physical Sciences Inc.
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(PSI) is developing a Virtual Source Training Toolkit (VSTT) system capable of reproducing the response of handheld radiation detectors to a virtual source in a complex occlusion and shielding environment. The toolkit will allow additional low-cost training opportunities for these officers inside operationally relevant public areas in order to reduce the time required to detect and localize a realistic radiological threat.
Active standoff chemical identification detector
Jay P. Giblin*, Julia R. Dupuis, John P. Dixon, Joel M. Hensley, David J. Mansur, and William J. Marinelli
SPIE Defense and Commercial Sensing, Orlando, FL, 15 - 19 April 2018
An active, standoff, all-phase chemical detection capability has been developed under IARPA’s SILMARILS program. The detection platform utilizes reflectance spectroscopy in the longwave infrared coupled with an automated detection algorithm that implements physics-based reflectance models for planar chemical films, particulate in the solid and liquid phase, and vapors.
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Target chemicals include chemical warfare agents, toxic industrial chemicals, and explosives. The platform employs broadband Fabry-Perot quantum cascade lasers with a spectrally selective detector to interrogate target surfaces at tens of meter standoff. A statistical F-test in a noise whitened space is used for detection and discrimination over a large target spectral library in high clutter environments. The capability is described with an emphasis on the physical reflectance models used to predict spectral reflectivity signatures as a function of surface contaminant presentation and loading. Developmental test results from a breadboard version of the detector platform are presented. Specifically, solid and liquid surface contaminants were detected and identified from a library of 325 compounds down to 30 μg/cm2 surface loading at a 5 m standoff. Vapor detection was demonstrated via topographic backscatter.
Compact Lidar for Continuous Monitoring of Atmospheric Extinction
Compact Lidar for Continuous Monitoring of Atmospheric Extinction
David M. Sonnenfroh*, Robert J. Minelli, Joseph A.K. Goodwin, and W. Terry Rawlins
SPIE Defense and Commercial Sensing, Orlando, FL, 15 - 19 April 2018
Physical Sciences Inc. is developing an advanced, compact lidar capable of continuous mapping of atmospheric extinction to provide environmental situational awareness for high energy laser weapon operations by the Navy.
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The lidar uses a MicroPulse Lidar architecture and combines a solid state Nd:YLF laser operating at 1 micron with photon counting detectors and advanced aerosol retrieval algorithms. We report on the design of the engineering prototype and provide a summary of the system performance demonstrated during the Comprehensive Atmospheric Boundary Layer Extinction / Turbulence Refinement eXperiment conducted at the Shuttle Landing Facility at Kennedy Space Center in June, 2017.
