A methodology for the characterization of portable sensors for air quality measure with the goal of deployment in citizen science

Abstract

The field of small air quality sensors is of growing interest within the scientific community, especially because this new technology is liable to improve air pollutant monitoring as well as be used for personal exposure quantification. Amongst the myriad existing devices, the performances are highly variable; this is why the sensors must be rigorously assessed before deployment, according to the intended use. This study is included in the Polluscope project; its purpose is to quantify personal exposure to air pollutants by using portable sensors. This paper designs and applies a methodology for the evaluation of portable air quality sensors to eight devices measuring PM, BC, NO2 and O3. The dedicated testing protocol includes static ambient air measurements compared with reference instruments, controlled chamber and mobility tests, as well as reproducibility evaluation. Three sensors (AE51, Cairclip and Canarin) were retained to be used for the field campaigns. The reliability of their performances were robustly quantified by

Low-Cost Air Quality Sensors: One-Year Field Comparative Measurement of Different Gas Sensors and Particle Counters with Reference Monitors at Tušimice Observatory

“…2 Correlations with Fidas200 optical particle counter tested by: r S = Spearman's rank correlation coefficient. 3 Correlations with RM tested by: r S = Spearman's rank correlation coefficient. 4 Measurement error calculated as: MBE = mean bias error, MAE = mean absolute error, RMSE = root mean square error, where the modeled concentrations were given by the Fidas200 optical particle counter (in µg/m 3 ).…”

“…Similarly to other countries, in the Czech Republic, the public's interest in the current state of ambient air quality is increasing, especially in cities and locations exposed to industrial sources of pollution. Although the national air quality network is representatively deployed over the entire territory, covering all types of monitoring sites (urban, industrial, and background) and potential air pollution sources (traffic, agricultural, and industrial), requests to widen the spatial resolution of the measurement network (to almost personal exposure) are still increasing in the public sector [1][2][3].…”

Large-scale citizen science provides high-resolution nitrogen dioxide values and health impact while enhancing community knowledge and collective action

“…There is already a large number of opportunities for high-resolution measurements of air pollutants in cities [54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61]. Due to the increasing evidence of adverse health effects, the related technological and scientific efforts need to be accompanied by actionable insights that harness policies, recommendations and collective actions both at a city level and at a high-resolution (neighborhood, census tract) level [62].…”

“…For air pollution, citizen science is generally using low-cost sensors. Indeed, connectedness low-cost sensor technologies [54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61] are helping to improve air quality monitoring, transparency, awareness and action between citizens and authorities [62][63][64]. Cities [55,65] and public agencies [29] are also beginning to share their environmental exposure data and in some cases to introduce participatory frameworks [66].…”

Novel Air Pollution Measurement System Based on Ethereum Blockchain

“…Their small size allows their direct use by citizens, measuring all the polluting parameters supported by the device. However, none of these ready-to-use devices have efficient real-time detection systems or high performance [13]. Recent studies allowed for the development of mobile monitoring systems in real time, such as platforms active on vehicles [14].…”