AiRMAPS Strategy

The OAR strategy for the airborne campaigns in 2024–2026 is shown in the figure below. The NOAA Twin Otter and WP-3D aircraft can be instrumented to measure GHGs (methane, carbon dioxide) and other tracers (nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide). The Twin Otter also measures wind velocities and boundary layer height with a Doppler lidar; a similar system is anticipated on the NOAA WP-3D by 2026. The enhanced NOAA WP-3D measurements also include co-emitted pollutants related to O&G and urban emissions (e.g., speciated volatile organic compounds (VOCs), oxidized nitrogen, speciated aerosol composition).

This series of flights will survey several urban areas and a significant fraction of oil and gas production. The emissions estimates from the survey flights and coordinated activities will provide critical evaluation of top-down and bottom-up methods to reduce uncertainty and improve reliability. Coordination of these surveys with complementary methods from remote sensing and surface data will aid in assessing the accuracy of these approaches that provide longer-term monitoring of emission trends.

AiRMAPS airborne survey schedule for 2024-2026

methane emissions estimates from U.S. O&G production basins
Nitrogen dioxide columns as measured from the TROPOMI satellite instrument for summer 2023. The shaded areas and dashed circles show U.S. O&G basins and urban areas for AIRMAPS surveys by year and aircraft (NOAA Twin Otter and WP-3D).