Can Eddy Covariance be used for more than high level detection?

Eddy Covariance (EC) has been proposed as a surface monitoring solution for long-term deployment at CCS sites. However, its suitability when applied to a highly inhomogeneous source area- as would be the case for a small-scale CO2 surface leak- has been poorly established. For this reason, EC has been implemented for two controlled CO2 releases conducted at the Ginninderra controlled release facility, with the aim of determining the technique's suitability for the location, detection and quantification of a small magnitude CO2 leak (144 kg/d). By comparing results from the two release experiments, this poster highlights the variable success of using EC for detection, and how this may depend on changing experimental and climatic variables such as leak location, tower height and depth to groundwater. The detection significance of grouped EC measurements will be established through statistical analysis using Cramer-Von Mises tests. In addition, the application of two EC towers concurrently for leak detection and location will be explored, with a second tower deployed for the latter portion of the 2013 release experiment. Quantification of the leak using EC was attempted, but due to the problems in the fundamental assumptions of the technique, no substantive progress could be made. This will be explained with respect to the 'lost' CO2 from the system in part due to advection and diffusion. Presented at the 2014 CO2CRC Research Symposium