Gas flaring is an important source of atmospheric soot–black carbon, especially in sensitive Arctic regions. However, emissions have traditionally been challenging to measure and remain poorly characterized, confounding international reporting requirements and adding uncertainty to climate models. The sky-LOSA optical measurement technique has emerged as a powerful means to quantify flare black carbon emissions in the field, but broader adoption has been hampered by the complexity of its deployment, where decisions during setup in the field can have profound, non-linear impacts on achievable measurement uncertainties. To address this challenge, this paper presents a prescriptive measurement protocol and associated open-source software tool that simplify acquisition of sky-LOSA data in the field. Leveraging a comprehensive Monte Carlo-based general uncertainty analysis (GUA) to predict measurement uncertainties over the entire breadth of possible measurement conditions, general heuristics are identified to guide a sky-LOSA user toward optimal data collection. These are further extended in the open-source software utility, SetupSkyLOSA, which interprets the GUA results to provide detailed guidance for any specific combination of location, date–time, and flare, plume, and ambient conditions. Finally, a case study of a sky-LOSA measurement at an oil and gas facility in Mexico is used to demonstrate the utility of the software tool, where potentially small regions of optimal instrument setup are easily and quickly identified. It is hoped that this work will help increase the accessibility of the sky-LOSA technique and ultimately the availability of field measurement data for flare black carbon emissions.

中文翻译：

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基于不确定性的协议，使用天空-LOSA设置和测量火炬烟尘黑碳排放量

气体燃烧是大气中烟尘黑碳的重要来源，尤其是在北极地区。但是，传统上，排放量一直难以测量，而且表征仍然很差，这混淆了国际报告要求，并增加了气候模型的不确定性。天空-LOSA光学测量技术已成为量化现场火炬黑碳排放的有力手段，但由于其部署的复杂性而阻碍了更广泛的应用，因为现场部署过程中的决策可能具有深远的非线性对可实现的测量不确定度的影响。为了解决这一挑战，本文提出了一种规范性的测量协议和相关的开源软件工具，该工具简化了现场对空中LOSA数据的获取。利用基于蒙特卡洛的全面综合一般不确定性分析（GUA）来预测整个可能的测量条件范围内的测量不确定性，可以识别一般启发式方法，以指导空中LOSA用户朝着最佳数据收集的方向发展。这些在开源软件实用程序SetupSkyLOSA中得到了进一步扩展，该实用程序可解释GUA结果，从而为位置，日期时间，耀斑，羽流和周围环境的任何特定组合提供详细的指导。最后，通过对墨西哥一家石油和天然气设施的空中LOSA测量进行案例研究，以展示该软件工具的实用性，在该工具中，可以轻松，快速地确定最佳仪器设置的潜在小区域。