Mobile Air Quality Studies (MAQS)-an international project

Abstract

Due to an increasing awareness of the potential hazardousness of air pollutants, new laws, rules and guidelines have recently been implemented globally. In this respect, numerous studies have addressed traffic-related exposure to particulate matter using stationary technology so far. By contrast, only few studies used the advanced technology of mobile exposure analysis. The Mobile Air Quality Study (MAQS) addresses the issue of air pollutant exposure by combining advanced high-granularity spatial-temporal analysis with vehicle-mounted, person-mounted and roadside sensors. The MAQS-platform will be used by international collaborators in order 1) to assess air pollutant exposure in relation to road structure, 2) to assess air pollutant exposure in relation to traffic density, 3) to assess air pollutant exposure in relation to weather conditions, 4) to compare exposure within vehicles between front and back seat (children) positions, and 5) to evaluate "traffic zone"-exposure in relation to non-"traffic zone"-exposure.Primarily, the MAQS-platform will focus on particulate matter. With the establishment of advanced mobile analysis tools, it is planed to extend the analysis to other pollutants including NO2, SO2, nanoparticles and ozone.

Mobile air quality studies (MAQS) in inner cities: particulate matter PM10 levels related to different vehicle driving modes and integration of data into a geographical information program

“…The present study used a novel approach to measure air quality using a mobile platform [1]. We assessed PM10 levels in the street situation at a real time basis in order to analyse in-vehicle-PM10 exposure with roof-open versus roof-closed driving modes.…”

“…The mobile platform for MAQS is a convertible car equipped as described in the study protocol [1]. It offers the advantage of assessing PM10 levels in both stationary and mobile modes.…”

“…The PM10 quantitation module consisted of a power supply unit and an analysis unit and was placed on the passengers seat at the right side of the vehicle. Data were recorded and combined with the GPS position in order to achieve geographical information of the MAQS analysis [1]. PM10 values were recorded using a Grimm system (Portable Laser Aerosolspectrometer 1.109, Grimm Aerosol Technik, Ainring, Germany) with a 6 sec data interval.…”

“…The Mobile Air Quality Study (MAQS) is focused on the traffic-related real time analysis of particulate matter (PM) in inner cities to quantify individual exposure [1]. PM is part of the global air pollution problem [2] resulting from the emission of air pollutants into the atmosphere by anthropogenic (i.e.…”

“…by low power supply capacities or the size of the systems and have to be adapted for use in mobile systems. This adaptation has been done resulting in the MAQS-platform usable for real time assessment of PM10 levels in realistic, mobile scenarios; this system also allows to integrate geographical data as well as air pollutant levels [1]. In this study we present data on the integration of geographical information: in pilot experiments we assessed in vehicle PM10 exposure in relation to open versus closed driving modes and PM10 levels in relation to vehicle speed.…”