The OAR strategy for the airborne campaigns in 2024–2026 is shown in the figure below. The NOAA Twin Otter and NOAA WP-3D aircraft can be instrumented to measure greenhouse gases (methane, carbon dioxide) and other tracers (nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide). The NOAA 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 such as speciated volatile organic compounds (VOCs), oxidized nitrogen, speciated aerosol composition, etc.
- 2024 Colorado and Utah. OAR conducted a series of flights with a NOAA Twin Otter in Colorado's Denver-Julesburg Basin and Utah's Uinta Basin (oil and gas), and the urban areas of Denver, Colorado and Salt Lake City, Utah (a city with a long record of urban greenhouse gas measurements) with the airborne Doppler lidar, greenhouse gases and other tracer measurements. OAR also deployed ground based mobile platforms.
- 2025 Baltimore and Marcellus Shale. Washington, D.C. - Baltimore is a well-established urban greenhouse gas emission testbed that remains out of compliance with current standards for ozone pollution. The Marcellus shale is one of the largest U.S. oil and gas basins. OAR will survey both regions with a NOAA Twin Otter and ground based mobile platforms.
- 2026 Texas and South Central U.S. OAR will deploy a comprehensive and detailed chemical payload on a NOAA WP-3D aircraft to survey greenhouse gases and co-emitted pollutants from the largest U.S. oil and gas basins (e.g., the Permian) and major urban areas (e.g., Houston, TX). Flights to the Bakken shale basin in North Dakota may be considered. A NOAA Twin Otter will survey a series of oil and gas basins in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana as well as major cites (e.g., Dallas, TX).
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
