The Impact of Survey Frequency on the Accuracy of Measurement Informed Methane Emissions Inventory

Abstract Methane emission distributions are highly skewed, where a small portion of large emitters could contribute over 50% of total emissions. Studies have found that some of the large emitters are intermittent, and they only last as short as a few hours. However, leak detection and repair programs (LDAR) are only conducted periodically. Using the snapshot measurement information to extrapolate the annualized emission inventory brings uncertainties. In this work, we quantified the uncertainties that arise from the survey frequency. This study considers the impact of survey frequency on two major scenarios – without repair programs and including repair programs. The results show that survey frequency has a significant impact on the accuracy of measurement-informed inventory (MII). However, the impact of survey frequency on different scenarios varies.