gas mixing and dispersion are major areas of interest in these experiments, and for this reason, we are

Antenna

setting up measurementstations

(Fig. 7) Specifically designed to
measure these effects. We are
equipping the turbulence stations
with fast, infrared gas sensors, temperature sensors, and fast-response

10

E
.
c

bivane anemometers positioned 1,
3, and 8m above the ground. The
development of a fast infrared gas
sensor has been a majorproject for
us this year.° This instrument,
capable of measuring methane,
ethane, and propane concentrations, is portable, fast (0.2 s cycle
time), and able to operate in the
fog. We developed it because no
satisfactory commercial instruments were available.

Bivane
anemometer

3

.

mm

3

Thermocouple

Qa

=

oO

_

co

mp

In the 40-m” tests, we are imag-

ct)

I 5

Humidity
‘

sensor

°
Radiometer
Battery

acauiai

0

Heat flux
sensor

ISHHONn

unit
s

Solar
P

anel

BiG “i
One of six turbulence stations being used in the 40-m?spill exuf Meese Y
periments currently being performed at China Lake. The entire
tower, excluding its base, weighs only about 22 kg and caneasily be moved from
one base to another by two men in about a half an hour. The gas stations are
similar, except that they do not include the fast-response bivane anemometers.

ing the cloud from above by means
of a helicopter-mountedinfrared
imaging system with opticalfilters
centered on a band in the infrared
strongly absorbed by methane. This
allows us to trace the cloud downwind long after it has become invisible to the naked eye and will be of
great help in reconstructing cloud
movements for comparison with
the computer simulation.
Weplan 10 or more 40-m? spills
under a variety of wind-speed and
spill-rate conditions. We would like
to measure spills at very low wind

speeds (1 to 2 m/s), but such con-

ditions are rare at China Lake.
Whendata from the current tests
are analyzed, we should have

enough information to proceed
with the larger spils.
Summary
We have conducted 4 series of
5-m" spills of LNG to evaluate gas

36

Select target paragraph3