Prototype Development of Drone System Used for In-situ Measurement of CO₂ Vertical Profile and Its Preliminary Flight Test

Abstract

This paper presents a novel drone system used for in-situ measurement of carbon dioxide (CO₂), which is one of greenhouse gases. To obtain a vertical profile of atmospheric CO₂ concentration, a Non-Dispersive Infrared (NDIR) analyzer was equipped on an off-the-shelf industrial drone. We designed and assembled an original mount which consists of carbon plates, hollow aluminum pipes, and resinous adapters created using a 3D printer. We obtained vertical CO₂ profiles up to the 500m level through a flight test of five different dates after getting the flight permissions at an altitude of more than 150m above the ground and Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. It is shown that CO₂ concentration generally increases with altitude, though the feature of CO₂ profiles varies with observation dates. Based on the five profiles from September 2017 to January 2018, we revealed a seasonality of CO₂ concentration over Akita. We suggest that this system is useful for in-situ CO₂ measurement and enables to conduct frequent and easy observations.