Inverse identification of multiple outdoor pollutant sources with a mobile sensor

Air pollution is becoming more and more severe in large cities. Accurate and rapid identification of outdoor pollutant sources can facilitate proper and effective air quality management in urban environments. Traditional “trial–error” process is time consuming and is incapacity in distinguishing multiple potential sources, which is common in urban pollution. Inverse prediction methods such as probability based adjoint modelling method have shown viability for locating indoor contaminant sources. This paper advances the adjoint probability method to track outdoor pollutant sources of constant release. The study develops an inverse modelling algorithm that can promptly locate multiple outdoor pollutant sources with limited pollution information detected by a movable sensor. Two numerical field experiments are conducted to illustrate and verify the predictions: one in an open space and the other in an urban environment. The developed algorithm promptly and accurately identifies the source locations in both cases. The requirement of an accurate urban building model is the primary prerequisite of the developed algorithm for urban application.