The Changing Paradigm of Air Pollution Monitoring

Snyder, Emily; Watkins, Timothy; Solomon, Paul A.; Thoma, Eben D.; Rt, Williams; Hagler, Gayle; Shelow, David; Hindin, David A.; Kilaru, Vasu; Preuß, Peter

doi:10.1021/es4022602

Cited by 711 publications

(544 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Into this gap a fast-growing area is the development of low-cost sensors for measuring the concentrations of a wide range of species in the atmosphere including gases and particles (Lewis et al, 2016;Rai et al, 2017;Snyder et al, 2013). However, the question remains as to whether the un-L. R. Crilley et al: Evaluation of a low-cost optical particle counter (Alphasense OPC-N2) certain quality of data from these low-cost sensors can be of value when attempting to determine pollutant concentrations at high spatial resolution (Kumar et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of a low-cost optical particle counter (Alphasense OPC-N2) for ambient air monitoring

et al. 2018

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Abstract. A fast-growing area of research is the development of low-cost sensors for measuring air pollutants. The affordability and size of low-cost particle sensors makes them an attractive option for use in experiments requiring a number of instruments such as high-density spatial mapping. However, for these low-cost sensors to be useful for these types of studies their accuracy and precision need to be quantified. We evaluated the Alphasense OPC-N2, a promising lowcost miniature optical particle counter, for monitoring ambient airborne particles at typical urban background sites in the UK. The precision of the OPC-N2 was assessed by colocating 14 instruments at a site to investigate the variation in measured concentrations. Comparison to two different reference optical particle counters as well as a TEOM-FDMS enabled the accuracy of the OPC-N2 to be evaluated. Comparison of the OPC-N2 to the reference optical instruments shows some limitations for measuring mass concentrations of PM 1 , PM 2.5 and PM 10 . The OPC-N2 demonstrated a significant positive artefact in measured particle mass during times of high ambient RH (> 85 %) and a calibration factor was developed based upon κ-Köhler theory, using average bulk particle aerosol hygroscopicity. Application of this RH correction factor resulted in the OPC-N2 measurements being within 33 % of the TEOM-FDMS, comparable to the agreement between a reference optical particle counter and the TEOM-FDMS (20 %). Inter-unit precision for the 14 OPC-N2 sensors of 22 ± 13 % for PM 10 mass concentrations was observed. Overall, the OPC-N2 was found to accurately measure ambient airborne particle mass concentration provided they are (i) correctly calibrated and (ii) corrected for ambient RH. The level of precision demonstrated between multiple OPC-N2s suggests that they would be suitable devices for applications where the spatial variability in particle concentration was to be determined.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of a low-cost optical particle counter (Alphasense OPC-N2) for ambient air monitoring

et al. 2018

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“…These are complemented by sensor circuits that have extremely lowpower consumption and energy-efficient communication devices. Advanced computing power for data handling and the wide choice of software packages for data visualisation have made their development and evolution even more exciting (Snyder et al 2013;White et al 2012).…”

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confidence: 99%

“…The development of inexpensive environmental monitoring methods (EuNetAir 2014;MESSAGE 2014) has led to the creation of a number of commercially available air quality sensors (Alphasense 2014;sensaris 2014) (Snyder et al 2013). The calibration procedure of gas sensors is carried out in two steps.…”

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confidence: 99%

The rise of low-cost sensing for managing air pollution in cities

Kumar

Morawska

Martani

et al. 2015

Environment International

724

447

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“…Already in 2006, Burke et al mentioned the theoretical potential of participatory sensing to investigate the relationship between air quality, urban traffic and public health. In Snyder et al (2013), US-EPA scientists give an overview of possible changes in air quality monitoring due to the materialization of lower-cost, easy-to-use, portable air pollution monitors (sensors) that provide high-time resolution data in near real-time.…”

Section: Participatory Air Quality Monitoringmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, none of these sensors can be used as such to measure outdoor air quality. Snyder et al (2013) indicate that many commercially available sensors have not been challenged rigorously under ambient conditions, including both typical concentrations and environmental factors. Accurate portable instruments are available for components such as ultrafine particles and black carbon.…”

Section: Participatory Air Quality Monitoringmentioning

confidence: 99%

Opportunistic mobile air pollution monitoring: A case study with city wardens in Antwerp

Bossche

Theunis

Elen

et al. 2016

Atmospheric Environment

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The goal of this paper is to explore the potential of opportunistic mobile monitoring to map the exposure to air pollution in the urban environment at a high spatial resolution. Opportunistic mobile monitoring makes use of existing mobile infrastructure or people's common daily routines to move measurement devices around. Opportunistic mobile monitoring can also play a crucial role in participatory monitoring campaigns as a typical way to gather data.A case study to measure black carbon was set up in Antwerp, Belgium, with the collaboration of city employees (city wardens). The Antwerp city wardens are outdoors for a large part of the day on surveillance tours by bicycle or on foot, and gathered a total of 393 hours of measurements. The data collection is unstructured both in space and time, leading to sampling bias. A temporal adjustment can only partly counteract this bias. Although a high spatial coverage was obtained, there is still a rather large uncertainty on the average concentration levels at a spatial resolution of 50 m due to a limited number of measurements and sampling bias. Despite of this uncertainty, large spatial patterns within the city are clearly captured.This study illustrates the potential of campaigns with unstructured opportunistic mobile monitoring, including participatory monitoring campaigns. The results demonstrate that such an approach can indeed be used to identify broad spatial trends over a wider area, enabling applications including hotspot identification, personal exposure studies, regression mapping, etc. But, they also emphasize the need for repeated measurements and careful processing and interpretation of the data.

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The Changing Paradigm of Air Pollution Monitoring

Cited by 711 publications

References 18 publications

Evaluation of a low-cost optical particle counter (Alphasense OPC-N2) for ambient air monitoring

Evaluation of a low-cost optical particle counter (Alphasense OPC-N2) for ambient air monitoring

The rise of low-cost sensing for managing air pollution in cities

Opportunistic mobile air pollution monitoring: A case study with city wardens in Antwerp

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