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<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">EGUsphere</journal-id>
<journal-title-group>
<journal-title>EGUsphere</journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="publisher">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="nlm-ta">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
</journal-title-group>
<issn pub-type="epub">1867-8610</issn>
<publisher><publisher-name>Copernicus Publications</publisher-name>
<publisher-loc>Göttingen, Germany</publisher-loc>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.5194/egusphere-2026-51</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>Evaluation of UAV-based methods for quantifying methane point source emissions</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Bolek</surname>
<given-names>Abdullah</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8002-9756</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Beattie</surname>
<given-names>Meghan N.</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5160-1138</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Oliaee</surname>
<given-names>Jalal Norooz</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3839-2313</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>MacLeod</surname>
<given-names>Roger</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Skeeter</surname>
<given-names>June</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Morse</surname>
<given-names>Peter</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Heimann</surname>
<given-names>Martin</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6296-5113</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Göckede</surname>
<given-names>Mathias</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2833-8401</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Department of Biogeochemical Signals, Jena, Germany</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff2">
<label>2</label>
<addr-line>Metrology Research Centre, National Research Council Canada, Ottawa, Canada</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff3">
<label>3</label>
<addr-line>Geological Survey of Canada, Natural Resources Canada, Ottawa and Sidney, Canada</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>20</day>
<month>01</month>
<year>2026</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>2026</volume>
<fpage>1</fpage>
<lpage>27</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2026 Abdullah Bolek et al.</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2026</copyright-year>
<license license-type="open-access">
<license-p>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit <ext-link ext-link-type="uri"  xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</ext-link></license-p>
</license>
</permissions>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-51/">This article is available from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-51/</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-51/egusphere-2026-51.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-51/egusphere-2026-51.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>Uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) are increasingly becoming essential monitoring tools across a rapidly growing set of applications, due to their operational versatility, &amp;nbsp;relatively low operating cost, and provision of data at a range of spatial scales. However, UAV-based measurement methodologies and associated instruments for atmospheric research are still in their early stages and require extensive efforts to exploit their full potential. In Arctic regions, geological CH&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt; seeps can &amp;nbsp;release CH&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt; at rates significantly higher than typical biogenic sources and those associated with permafrost degradation processes; hence, accurate quantification of their emission rates is crucial for the overall CH&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt; budget of the Arctic. The application of conventional greenhouse gas monitoring platforms &amp;ndash; flux chambers and eddy-covariance towers &amp;ndash; may become impractical as eddy-covariance towers are stationary point measuring devices that require long observation times with reliable footprint modeling to constrain emissions while flux chambers have a small footprints and therefore require multiple measurements and have a high potential of introducing disturbances. UAVs can overcome these limitations as they can capture the spatial extent of the gas plume released from a point source with minimal disturbance to the source. In July 2025, we deployed two UAV platforms with different sensing instruments to sample a known geological CH&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt; seep located at the Mackenzie River Delta, Canada. We flew vertical &quot;curtain&quot; patterns with open-path and closed-path CH&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt; instruments to sample gas concentrations in flux planes at different downwind distances from the gas seep. We first evaluated the performance of the UAV-mounted instrumentation, comparing the open- and closed-path greenhouse gas analyzers. We then compared two widely used quantification techniques &amp;ndash; mass-balance and Gaussian plume inversion &amp;ndash; finding that mass-balance approaches yielded the most robust quantification with smaller uncertainties. We estimate that the seep emission rate falls in the range of 7.1 to 16.2 kg CH&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt; h&lt;sup&gt;-1&lt;/sup&gt;, with an average estimated rate of 11.4 &amp;plusmn; 6.8 kg CH&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt; h&lt;sup&gt;-1&lt;/sup&gt;. The emissions from this single point are equivalent to the biogenic flux from approximately 2.2 km&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt; of the surrounding permafrost landscape, underscoring the need to assess the potentially significant contribution of geological seeps to regional and pan-Arctic carbon budgets.</p>
</abstract>
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<funding-group>
<award-group id="gs1">
<funding-source>H2020 European Research Council</funding-source>
<award-id>951288</award-id>
</award-group>
<award-group id="gs2">
<funding-source>Natural Resources Canada</funding-source>
<award-id>NRC-23-137</award-id>
</award-group>
<award-group id="gs3">
<funding-source>Natural Resources Canada</funding-source>
<award-id>003-25</award-id>
</award-group>
</funding-group>
</article-meta>
</front>
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