The Aeroflex: A Bicycle for Mobile Air Quality Measurements

Elen, Bart; Peters, Jan; Poppel, Martine Van; Bleux, Nico; Theunis, Jan; Reggente, Matteo; Standaert, Arnout

doi:10.3390/s130100221

Cited by 102 publications

(70 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…An extensive monitoring campaign 1 using a mobile monitoring platform, the Aeroflex (Elen et al, 2013), was set up in Antwerp (51°12' N, 4°26' E, medium-sized city of 480,000 inhabitants, 985 inhabitants km 2 ), Belgium, during 4 weeks in February-March 2012. The Aeroflex is a bicycle equipped with compact air quality measurement devices to monitor at a high temporal resolution (up to one second).…”

Section: Mobile Monitoring Campaignmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mobile monitoring for mapping spatial variation in urban air quality: Development and validation of a methodology based on an extensive dataset

Bossche

Peters

Verwaeren

et al. 2015

Atmospheric Environment

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Mobile monitoring is increasingly used as an additional tool to acquire air quality data at a high spatial resolution. However, given the high temporal variability of urban air quality, a limited number of mobile measurements may only represent a snapshot and not be representative. In this study, the impact of this temporal variability on the representativeness is investigated and a methodology to map urban air quality using mobile monitoring is developed and evaluated.A large set of black carbon (BC) measurements was collected in Antwerp, Belgium, using a bicycle equipped with a portable BC monitor (micro-aethalometer). The campaign consisted of 256 and 96 runs along two fixed routes (2 and 5 km long). Large gradients over short distances and differences up to a factor of 10 in mean BC concentrations aggregated at a resolution of 20 m are observed. Mapping at such a high resolution is possible, but a lot of repeated measurements are required. After computing a trimmed mean and applying background normalisation, depending on the location 24 to 94 repeated measurement runs (median of 41) are required to map the BC concentrations at a 50 m resolution with an uncertainty of 25 %. When relaxing the uncertainty to 50 %, these numbers reduce to 5 to 11 (median of 8) runs. We conclude that mobile monitoring is a suitable approach for mapping the urban air quality at a high spatial resolution, and can provide insight into the spatial variability that would not be possible with stationary monitors. A careful set-up is needed with a sufficient number of repetitions in relation to the desired reliability and spatial resolution. Specific data processing methods such as background normalisation and event detection have to be applied.

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Section: Mobile Monitoring Campaignmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mobile monitoring for mapping spatial variation in urban air quality: Development and validation of a methodology based on an extensive dataset

Bossche

Peters

Verwaeren

et al. 2015

Atmospheric Environment

Self Cite

191

132

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“…Gas-sensing monitors have been employed by hand (Cao and Thompson, 2016;Chaudhry, 2013) and with different platforms (e.g. rolling cases (Cattaneo et al, 2010), bicycles (Elen et al, 2012;MacNaughton et al, 2014;Weichenthal et al, 2011)), and for various applications (e.g. health (Cattaneo et al, 2010;DelgadoSaborit, 2012;Wu et al, 2010), environment (MacNaughton et al, 2014), air pollution mitigation (White et al, 2012)).…”

Section: Trends In Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characteristics and applications of small, portable gaseous air pollution monitors

McKercher

Salmond

Vanos

2017

Environmental Pollution

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a b s t r a c tBackground: Traditional approaches for measuring air quality based on fixed measurements are inadequate for personal exposure monitoring. To combat this issue, the use of small, portable gas-sensing air pollution monitoring technologies is increasing, with researchers and individuals employing portable and mobile methods to obtain more spatially and temporally representative air pollution data. However, many commercially available options are built for various applications and based on different technologies, assumptions, and limitations. A review of the monitor characteristics of small, gaseous monitors is missing from current scientific literature. Purpose: A state-of-the-art review of small, portable monitors that measure ambient gaseous outdoor pollutants was developed to address broad trends during the last 5e10 years, and to help future experimenters interested in studying gaseous air pollutants choose monitors appropriate for their application and sampling needs. Methods: Trends in small, portable gaseous air pollution monitor uses and technologies were first identified and discussed in a review of literature. Next, searches of online databases were performed for articles containing specific information related to performance, characteristics, and use of such monitors that measure one or more of three criteria gaseous air pollutants: ozone, nitrogen dioxide, and carbon monoxide. All data were summarized into reference tables for comparison between applications, physical features, sensing capabilities, and costs of the devices. Results: Recent portable monitoring trends are strongly related to associated applications and audiences. Fundamental research requires monitors with the best individual performance, and thus the highest cost technology. Monitor networking favors real-time capabilities and moderate cost for greater reproduction. Citizen science and crowdsourcing applications allow for lower-cost components; however important strengths and limitations for each application must be addressed or acknowledged for the given use.

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“…Because trace gas analyzer systems for greenhouse gases are still bulky (e.g. Tao et al, 2015), past mobile mapping studies utilized specialized research vehicles (Bukowiecki et al, 2002;Elen et al, 2013;Crawford and Christen, 2014). While these vehicles have the advantage that they can be equipped with additional components such as calibration tanks or computers, the complexity of such systems does not allow for easy deployment on standard and flexible modes of transport.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A mobile sensor network to map carbon dioxide emissions in urban environments

et al. 2017

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Abstract. A method for directly measuring carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions using a mobile sensor network in cities at fine spatial resolution was developed and tested. First, a compact, mobile system was built using an infrared gas analyzer combined with open-source hardware to control, georeference, and log measurements of CO 2 mixing ratios on vehicles (car, bicycles). Second, two measurement campaigns, one in summer and one in winter (heating season) were carried out. Five mobile sensors were deployed within a 1 × 12.7 km transect across the city of Vancouver, BC, Canada. The sensors were operated for 3.5 h on pre-defined routes to map CO 2 mixing ratios at street level, which were then averaged to 100 × 100 m grid cells. The averaged CO 2 mixing ratios of all grids in the study area were 417.9 ppm in summer and 442.5 ppm in winter. In both campaigns, mixing ratios were highest in the grid cells of the downtown core and along arterial roads and lowest in parks and well vegetated residential areas. Third, an aerodynamic resistance approach to calculating emissions was used to derive CO 2 emissions from the gridded CO 2 mixing ratio measurements in conjunction with mixing ratios and fluxes collected from a 28 m tall eddycovariance tower located within the study area. These measured emissions showed a range of −12 to 226 CO 2 ha −1 h −1 in summer and of −14 to 163 kg CO 2 ha −1 h −1 in winter, with an average of 35.1 kg CO 2 ha −1 h −1 (summer) and 25.9 kg CO 2 ha −1 h −1 (winter). Fourth, an independent emissions inventory was developed for the study area using buildings energy simulations from a previous study and routinely available traffic counts. The emissions inventory for the same area averaged to 22.06 kg CO 2 ha −1 h −1 (summer) and 28.76 kg CO 2 ha −1 h −1 (winter) and was used to compare against the measured emissions from the mobile sensor network. The comparison on a grid-by-grid basis showed linearity between CO 2 mixing ratios and the emissions inventory (R 2 = 0.53 in summer and R 2 = 0.47 in winter). Also, 87 % (summer) and 94 % (winter) of measured grid cells show a difference within ±1 order of magnitude, and 49 % (summer) and 69 % (winter) show an error of less than a factor 2. Although associated with considerable errors at the individual grid cell level, the study demonstrates a promising method of using a network of mobile sensors and an aerodynamic resistance approach to rapidly map greenhouse gases at high spatial resolution across cities. The method could be improved by longer measurements and a refined calculation of the aerodynamic resistance.

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The Aeroflex: A Bicycle for Mobile Air Quality Measurements

Cited by 102 publications

References 20 publications

Mobile monitoring for mapping spatial variation in urban air quality: Development and validation of a methodology based on an extensive dataset

Mobile monitoring for mapping spatial variation in urban air quality: Development and validation of a methodology based on an extensive dataset

Characteristics and applications of small, portable gaseous air pollution monitors

A mobile sensor network to map carbon dioxide emissions in urban environments

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