Digital Opacity Compliance System | DOCS II
Method 9 Alternative. Everything Method 9 gives you.
Plus proof.
DOCS II is the EPA-approved Method 9 alternative: camera-based opacity readings, verified by a certified analyst, with no recurring smoke school for your staff.
IN THE FIELD
Digital Opacity Compliance System (DOCS II)
Every observation starts in the DOCS II app. Open it on your phone and you're on the map, walking the site.
No compass, no range finder, no sketch of the sun on a field form. The app collects the necessary reporting components for the Method 9 observer.
COLLECTED AUTOMATICALLY
THE WORKFLOW
How an observation becomes a record
A certified operator records the emissions source with the digital camera or camcorder. In the DOCS II app they touch the emission point and their observation point on the map and use the app the record the vertical angle to their emissions source. Distance, angles, sun position, weather and camera position are captured automatically alongside the imagery.
1Capture in the field
Each frame is scored inside an analyst-defined region of interest within the plume, measured against contrast and luminance values calibrated with known opacity values.
2Analyze against calibration
The customer Quality Assures the returned observation by confirming the details of the report before it becomes a formal record. Both the analysis and the human decision are written to the record.
3Confirm and record
The completed observation, its source imagery and its full field metadata are retained and exportable as a compliance record for permit reporting, agency submittal, or later defense.
4File and retain
ASTM D7523 and EPA Alternative Method 082 remove the need for smoke school certification.
Skip the school. Use the tool.
No more smoke school.
One 4-hour training course, delivered virtually. Your observers stay certified for as long as they use the DOCS II camera. No twice-yearly travel, time off or fees.
No more guessing.
Opacity is calculated from the image against calibrated values. It’s an opacity monitoring system made easy.
No more one-person record.
The frame stays with the reading. If a reading is questioned years later, you produce the image, the analysis and the certification behind it.
CERTIFICATION AND PROCUREMENT
What stands behind it
ASTM D7523 - 16
Certified as an approved Method 9 alternative, since 2009.
EPA ALT-082
Broadly Applicable Alternative Method 082, published February 2012. Used in lieu of Method 9 under 40 CFR Parts 60, 61 and 63
Required method
D7520-16 is the specified opacity method under the Ferroalloys NESHAP, 40 CFR 63.1625(b)(9)
GSA SCHEDULE
Available for direct government procurement
DoD backing
Developed under Department of Defense contract, shipping since 2008
WHATS INCLUDED
Everything from the field to the proceeding
For stationary and fugitive sources.
DOCS II app for smartphone, with map-based setup
Certified camera configuration, supplied and maintained by us, recertified every 3.5 years through the national smoke school network
Analysis and analyst verification on every observation
The 4-hour DCOT training course ALT-082 requires, delivered virtually
Records export for permit reporting and agency submittal
Certification records and technical support through a proceeding, if a reading is challenged
Who it's for
Who we serve — the people who take the reading, and the people who check it.
Whether you are a regulatory agency or a permitted facility, DOCS II ensures accurate and defendable documentation.
Agencies & Regulators
Federal, state and local air quality programs running DOCS II for their own inspections — and reviewing observations filed with them.
Direct procurement through the GSA schedule
One certified configuration across every inspector in a region or district
Operator training and recertification coordinated for agency staff
Each reading tied to its imagery, position, distance, bearing, sun angle and weather
A complete trail from capture through analysis to confirmation
Facilities & Industry
Permitted sources demonstrating compliance with an opacity limit — and defending that demonstration when it gets questioned.
The reading comes from calibrated analysis of a captured image, not an estimate made in the moment
The frame it was derived from stays in the record — nothing depends on what an observer remembers seeing
If a reading is challenged, we stand behind it: certification records, the underlying analysis, and technical support through the proceeding
One procedure across every site, operator and shift
Records export for permit reporting and agency submittal
Shawn Dolan, Founder & President
If a reading is challenged.
We stand behind it.
Certified records, the underlying analysis, and technical support throughout the process. You work directly with the analyst who determines the opacity of the observation.
Ask us about your source.
Tell us what you operate or regulate, and we'll walk through a real observation end to end — capture, analysis, confirmation, and what you're left holding.