Quadcopter integrated into atmospheric gas analyser

Developed by a team from the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Colorado Boulder, the system uses an eye-safe laser instrument to send light that “combs” the air to an airborne multi-copter and analyses the colours of light absorbed along the way to identify gas signatures in near-real time.

The so-called “comb and copter” system may be useful to scan for leaks in oil and gas fields, study the mixing of vehicle emissions and other gases in the boundary between the earth’s surface and the next layer of the atmosphere, or, with planned upgrades, detect pollutants or chemical threats and their sources. The work is described in Optica.

Researchers used the comb light to measure carbon dioxide, methane and water vapour along a 2km path between a telescope on the roof of a NIST Boulder lab and a retroreflector mounted on a small, unmanned aircraft.

The multi-copter hovered in selected spots to measure gases along a horizontal path and at various altitudes of up to 120m. Higher-altitude flights are technically feasible but currently limited by unmanned aerial vehicle flight rules.