Quantification of Gas Emission Volume Derived from Imaging of Gas Flare Plumes

Principal Investigator(s)

Anthony Vodacek

Research Team Members

Oluwasegun Cornelious Omobolanle (PASET RSIF Doctoral Scholar and Visiting RIT International Scholar)

Sunday Sunday Ikiensikimama (ACE-CEFOR, University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria)

Princewill Josiah (ACE-CEFOR, University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria)

Project Description

The research is investigating the use of imaging techniques for gas flare monitoring and quantification. It aims to improve flare data accuracy and transparency by enabling direct estimation of gas flare emissions from high resolution imaging observations and ground truth.

The research is divided into two broad areas. The first aspect focuses on the quantification of gas flare emission volume from ground-based imaging of flare plumes. A prototype flare surveillance imaging system (Figure 1) has been developed and patented for this task. The second aspect focuses on applying artificial intelligence to high resolution satellite imagery to improve the detection and quantification of gas flaring. While current approaches have demonstrated effectiveness for pixel-based analysis of flares, they often miss flares, aggregate multiple sources, or misidentify signals, leading to flare data inaccuracy and other uncertainties in the reported flare volumes.

Our preliminary results suggest that high resolution image data, combined with AI-based detection, can identify flares that are not captured by current methods (Figure 2). Building on this, we aim to develop a framework for the direct estimation of flare gas volume using high resolution remote observations and ground truth. This work will be presented at IGARSS 2026.

Figures and Images