Atmospheric Measurement Techniques
Atmospheric Measurement Techniques
AMT

A helicopter-based mass balance approach for quantifying methane emissions from industrial activities, applied for coal mine ventilation shafts in Poland

17 December 2025

The authors introduce a helicopter-borne mass balance approach, utilizing the HELiPOD platform, to accurately quantify methane (CH4) emissions from coal mining activities. The comparison of their top-down mass flux estimates (up to 3000 kg h−1) against those from bottom-up in-mine CH4 safety sensors revealed very good agreement. This approach also has a great potential in quantifying emission source strengths (down to 20 kg h−1) from a wide range of other CH4 emitters (e.g. landfills, oil & gas industry).

Please also read the press release by DLR Institute of Atmospheric Physics.

A helicopter-based mass balance approach for quantifying methane emissions from industrial activities, applied for coal mine ventilation shafts in Poland
Eric Förster, Heidi Huntrieser, Michael Lichtenstern, Falk Pätzold, Lutz Bretschneider, Andreas Schlerf, Sven Bollmann, Astrid Lampert, Jarosław Nęcki, Paweł Jagoda, Justyna Swolkień, Dominika Pasternak, Robert A. Field, and Anke Roiger
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 7153–7176, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-7153-2025, 2025

Contact: Eric Förster (eric.foerster@dlr.de)