Development of a differential absorption LIDAR for identification of carbon sequestration site leakage

Abstract

This thesis describes the development and deployment of a near-infrared scanning micropulse differential absorption lidar (DIAL) system for monitoring carbon dioxide sequestration site integrity. The DIAL utilizes a custom-built lidar (light detection and ranging) transmitter system based on two commercial tunable diode lasers operating at 1.571 micron, an acousto-optic modulator, fiber optic switches, and an Erbium-doped fiber amplifier to generate 65 mJ 200 ns pulses at a 15 kHz repetition rate. Backscattered laser transmitter light is collected with an 11 inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope where it is optically filtered to reduce background noise. A fiber-coupled photomultiplier tube operating in the photon counting mode is then used to monitor the collected return signal. Averaging over periods typically of one hour permit range-resolved measurements of carbon dioxide from 1 to 2.5 km with a typical error of 40 ppm. For monitoring a field site, the system scans over a field area by pointing the transmitter and receiver with a computer controlled motorized commercial telescope base. The system has made autonomous field measurements in an agricultural field adjacent to Montana State University and at the Kevin Dome carbon sequestration site in rural northern Montana. Comparisons have been made with an in situ sensor showing agreement between the two measurements to within the 40 error of the DIAL. In addition to the work on the 1.57 micron DIAL, this thesis also presents work done at NASA Langley Research Center on the development and deployment of a 2 micron integrated path differential absorption (IPDA) lidar. The 2 micron system utilizes a low repetition rate 140 mJ double pulsed Ho:Tm:YLF laser developed at NASA Langley.