Evaluating the feasibility of using downwind methods to quantify point source oil and gas emissions using continuous monitoring fence-line sensors

The accurate reporting of methane (CH4) emissions from point sources, such as fugitive leaks from oil and gas infrastructure, is important for evaluating climate change impacts, assessing CH4 fees for regulatory programs, and validating methane intensity in differentiated gas programs. Currently, there are disagreements between emissions reported by different quantification techniques for the same sources. It has been suggested that downwind CH4 quantification methods using CH4 measurements on the fence-line of production facilities could be used to generate emission estimates from oil and gas operations at the site level, but it is currently unclear how accurate the quantified emissions are. To investigate model accuracy, this study uses fence-line simulated data collected during controlled release experiments as input for eddy covariance, aerodynamic flux gradient, backward Lagrangian stochastic model, and the Gaussian plume inverse methods in a range of atmospheric conditions. Eddy c..., Methane concentration data for eddy covariance, Gaussian plume inverse method, and the backward Lagrangian stochastic model were collected through an inlet tubing (3.275 inner diameter) at 3 m height, connected to the ABB (Zurich, Switzerland) GLA131 Series Microportable Greenhouse Gas Analyzer (MGGA) set to sample at 10 Hz. The MGGA is a closed-path greenhouse gas analyzer with a ~3.2 lpm pump flowrate, 10 cm cell length, 1 inch cell diameter (~0.23 standard cubic centimeters per minute (sccm) effective volume), and 0.4 s gas flow response time. The inlet tubing was collocated with an R. M. Young (Traverse City, MI, USA) 81000 sonic anemometer (R.M. Young Company, 2023), which measured micrometeorology at 10 Hz. The northward, eastward, and vertical separation of the inlet tubing from the sonic anemometer was 0, 0, -10 cm, respectively. For aerodynamic flux gradient, CH4 concentration data were collected at 2 and 4 m using two Aeris (Hayward, CA, USA) MIRA Ultra Series analyzers connec..., , # Evaluating the feasibility of using downwind methods to quantify point source oil and gas emissions using continuous monitoring fence-line sensors

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.hhmgqnkss](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.hhmgqnkss)

## Description of the data and file structure

### File list:

* Releases_Information.csv: This is the METEC releases information, location, height, duration, and emission rate
* AERIS-2m.csv: Methane concentration data at location [40.59612017,-105.14032567], 2 m height
* AERIS-4m.csv: Methane concentration data at location [40.59612017,-105.14032567], 4 m height
* CH4 MGGA: Methane concentration data at location [40.59603590,-105.14032186], 3 m height
* CH4_MGGA*_*8hz: Dry methane concentration at location [40.59603590,-105.14032186], 3 m height
* met.csv: Meteorological data from the sonic anemometer collocated with the MGGA, 3 m height

### Files and variables

#### File: AERIES-2m.csv

##### Variables:

* TimeStamp: Mountain Time in the format mm/dd/yy...,