The Department operates a Mobile Air Quality Lab as well as several air quality monitoring stations across Wyoming. Several instruments are used in research or operations, and some of the instruments can be used on the UWKA as well. The leading question is to understand how emissions from oil and gas extraction impact the global climate (fugitive greenhouse gas emissions) and air quality in the Mountain West.
The UW King Air research aircraft (N2UW) is a specially instrumented Raytheon King Air 200T (twin turbo-prop) designed and used for atmospheric research. The aircraft and its in situ and remote sensors (including the Wyoming Cloud Radar) constitute a national facility that can be requested by the NSF-funded community for deployments in the US and abroad. Deployments have focused on a variety of atmospheric processes and phenomena, including clouds and precipitation, air pollution, surface exchange and the boundary layer. We currently are developing a new research aircraft. Visit the UW King Air Research webpage to learn more.
The heavy lift drone provides researchers in the CAQ with a. remote tool for methane emissions detections, measurements, and monitoring. The systems exhibit good sensitivity and can be operated at a pragmatic distance away from the gas source.