Accurate quantification of methane emissions from landfills is crucial for improving greenhouse gas inventories and mitigating climate change impacts. Existing methodologies, such as theoretical gas production models and labour-intensive measurement approaches, present limitations including large uncertainties and high operational costs. This study adds to a growing body of research and applications which aim to bridge this gap. To this end, we present a case study using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) equipped with methane and wind instrumentation for a survey of a landfill site in Bury, Manchester, UK, in summer 2022, in order to evaluate and reflect the challenges of the UAV-based mass balance method for quantification of methane emissions from a large heterogeneous source such as landfill. This study offers guidance on defining an appropriate methane background concentration, geospatial interpolation of sampled date, survey sampling strategy, and more importantly, addresses the challenges surrounding UAV wind measurements and spatial characterisation of emission plumes. For the period of the case study, we quantified methane flux for the landfill site to be 150.7 kg h with a 1 standard deviation uncertainty range of 83.0 kg h to 209.5 kg h.

中文翻译：

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从英国垃圾填埋场的无人机调查和甲烷排放计算中汲取的经验教训

准确量化垃圾填埋场的甲烷排放对于改善温室气体清单和减轻气候变化影响至关重要。现有的方法，例如理论天然气生产模型和劳动密集型测量方法，存在很大的不确定性和高运营成本等局限性。这项研究补充了越来越多旨在弥合这一差距的研究和应用。为此，我们提出了一个案例研究，使用配备甲烷和风力仪器的无人机 (UAV) 于 2022 年夏季对英国曼彻斯特伯里的一个垃圾填埋场进行调查，以评估和反映垃圾填埋场面临的挑战。基于无人机的质量平衡方法，用于量化垃圾填埋场等大型异质源的甲烷排放量。这项研究为定义适当的甲烷背景浓度、采样日期的地理空间插值、调查采样策略提供了指导，更重要的是，解决了围绕无人机风测量和排放羽流空间特征的挑战。在案例研究期间，我们将垃圾填埋场的甲烷通量量化为 150.7 kg·h，1 个标准差不确定性范围为 83.0 kg·h 至 209.5 kg·h。