Systems and methods for assembling a collection of peaks characterizing a gas leak source and selecting representative peaks for display

Abstract

In some embodiments, vehicle-based natural gas leak detection methods include assembling a collection of measured concentration peaks originating from a common natural gas leak according to wind direction, wind variability and inter-peak distance data, and selecting from the collection a subset of one or more representative peaks for display. Assigning peaks to a collection may be performed according to a peak overlap condition dependent upon a scaling (overlap) factor which scales the spatial reach of a peak, and according to a wind condition which determines whether a downwind event points toward an upwind event. The scaling factor may depend on wind variability and on an orientation of an inter-peak vector relative to a representative wind direction. Peak filtering is particularly useful in urban environments, where buildings channel gas plumes and one leak may lead to sequential detections of multiple concentration peaks along a path.