Systems and methods for detecting gases, airborne compounds, and other particulates, are provided. The system detects materials of interest, including but not limited to, volatile organic compounds, aerosols, particulates, and biological and other pathogens in a three dimensional volume over an area of interest. The system detects the concentration of analytes of interest in the presence of atmospheric contaminants. Data points form a three-dimensional “point cloud” to which particle swarm optimization and feature extraction algorithms are applied, providing leak detection, mapping of chemical plumes, and short-term and long-term flux measurements, among other functions.