Methane-sniffing drones with distributed mobile sensors! by Ocean Foresters

Why is support not showing on the list?

Did you give up on presenting at the Union of Concerned Scientist's meeting in Los Angeles on Wednesday and Thursday? We could still make that presentation.

Novel idea, but some concerns about feasibility and challenges of attracting thousand of volunteers. The authors get points for putting more meat on the bones of this proposal during the revision phase, but it still seems a little haphazard. The proposal seems designed for something else, rather than this contest in particular. The parts about the bio-methane economy and the oceans seem like a distraction, reflecting a pre-existing idea the authors had which they are just applying to this contest. There is also a concern about whether companies would be willing to have sensors placed on their employees’ mobile phones.

The proposal's concepts can become an important component of preventing the catastrophic release of methane from hydrates (one consequence of gradual warming). (As well as cleaning up oil and gas industry "spills" of methane.) Bacteria are floating in the air, even at altitudes above commercial airline flights. Some bacteria subsist on methane. They breath oxygen, eat CH4, and exhale CO2. (Such bacteria ate the CH4 from the Deep Water Horizon methane and oil release). If the oil and gas industry is paying for their CH4 spills, they would have reason to "crop-dust" the spills with an aerosol full of CH4 eating bacteria. The above concept monitoring system would document the effectiveness of the clean-up. Back to the Arctic, where we want to prevent methane from hydrates heating the atmosphere. Others have discussed delaying methane release by faking the reflection of Arctic Ocean ice and keeping the water cooler. One way to temporarily increase reflection is microbubbles (see PGAllen Ocean Challenge concept "Albedo modulation and thermal buffering." http://www.pgafamilyfoundation.org/oceanchallenge/TemplateComments.aspx?suid=10) Microbubbles may be thought of as foam. Small (few square kilometer) scale foam experiments are not as scary or expensive as other albedo changers (aerosols, clouds, etc.) On the larger scale, the Salter 'cloud ships' might instead be Arctic Ocean 'foam ships or aerial foam drones.' Either could be equipped to also monitor methane concentrations as explained in the Climate CoLab entry: https://www.climatecolab.org/web/guest/plans/-/plans/contestId/30/planId/1303603 There are lots of foams including beer foam, surfactant foam, recently developed non-toxic fire-fighting foams, and even an Innocentive contest that might find us just the right foam: Making a Stable Foam Share this Challenge: https://www.innocentive.com/ar/challenge/9933346 A novel solution is required that will produce a stable foam on dispensing a liquid from a container. This is a Theoretical Challenge that requires a written proposal and experimental proof-of-concept data Working concepts or prototypes would also be of interest to the Seeker. Challenge 9933346 Deadline: August 26, 2013 Reward: $20,000 Once we have the ideal foam, we foam land and water for 2 to 3 months of Arctic summer. Perhaps the foam boats or drones fly south to foam along the equator during the Arctic winter. The effects of foam in the summer should be a little like the effects of the ice it replaces. The foam would detain any methane migrating up through the water/soil column. While the methane migrates, it is being biologically degraded (used for food) by aerobic bacteria. If we can supply the bacteria and the oxygen in the foam, the foam might convert much of the CH4 to CO2 before it reaches the atmosphere. The bacteria (and the foam) may have commercial applications for spreading over old landfills, livestock wastewater ponds, and other such methane sources. Industries would buy the methane eating foam in order to satisfy local air quality regulators. The oil and gas industry (particularly fracking) might deploy an aerosol version of the bacteria to clean-up methane "spills" from their operations.

Another important use of smart-phone sensors. They could become important for nuclear arms reduction, particularly in Iran. (Less so for North Korea.) Part of a "trust but verify" arrangement could include thousands of people who regularly visit places where bomb processing may be occurring. They carry devices associated with their smartphones such as: http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2013/09/under-100-gamma-radiation-detector.html http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/10/it-had-to-happen-iphone-radiation-detectors/ http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/onepercent/2012/02/diy-geiger-counter-smartphone.html

I'm curious as to where you got in your research with this topic. Trying to use $5 sensors on a moving platform that itself may affect the methane readings appears to be something you need to do a lot of sensitivity analysis on. In short, it seems you need to do more research into the validity of your measuring tools before using it to levy taxes on polluters.