Real-Time Atmospheric Monitoring of Urban Air Pollution Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Abstract

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), or Drones, have recently begun to appear frequently in the television, newspapers and social media for their applicability in various fields of science. Although UAVs have been used in a wide range of atmospheric science, there are few reports of using UAVs for lower layer atmospheric observation available. In my laboratory, harmful black carbon (BC) in ambient particulates was determined based on the observation results of harmful chemicals in the lower boundary layer and atmospheric conditions using UAVs. The ambient particulates in the lower layer atmosphere based on heights can be measured by UAVs at the optional location. In this paper, I want to report the lower layer atmospheric observation of ambient particulates with their chemical species for the first time in Japan. The data transfer devices were loaded into UAVs for the transformation of the results measured at different heights during 2018 in order to develop real-time observations of PM2.5 and PM10 in the lower layer atmosphere of the suburban and urban areas of Saitama city, Japan. Air pollutants transported from the urban areas of metropolitan Tokyo were determined from the real-time results of measurements in the vanity in the morning, noon and afternoon. High concentrations of PM2.5 and PM10 were observed around noon in the rural area of Yorii-machi, Saitama prefecture on December 5, 2017 which might be influenced by the polluted air mass from the urban atmosphere. It is clear that different air pollution phenomena can be observed easily by using UAVs real-time atmospheric monitoring.

Biodegradable CA/CPB electrospun nanofibers for efficient retention of airborne nanoparticles

“…Simultaneously, BC concentrations without the CA/CPB nanofiber were measured at same site using the Aethalometer model AE42 (Magee Scientific, EUA). The BC concentrations were determined and analyzed at 880 nm and 375 nm; 375 nm being the most sensitive wavelengths to the carbonaceous originating from wood smoke, biomass burning and tobacco; while 880 nm is the standard wavelength to measure BC particles ( Wang, 2019 ).…”

Observational Practices for Urban Microclimates Using Meteorologically Instrumented Unmanned Aircraft Systems

“…Analogously, UASs have also been used to successfully undertake kinematic atmospheric measurements, commonly measurements of the mean wind [63,[65][66][67] and its fluctuating component, i.e., turbulence [68][69][70]. Due to existing regulations that stymie many urban UAS operations, studies involving the deployment of UASs for UBL investigation are scarce and those that do exist are typically constrained to vertical ascents and descents over a single fixed location [71] or one position for urban air pollution monitoring [72][73][74][75].…”

Evaluation of Selected Algorithms for Air Pollution Source Localisation Using Drones

“…There are also flying robots equipped with particulate matter (PM) sensors. In work [9], the authors described multi-rotor robots for a vertical PM profile measurement, i.e., PM2.5 particles and ozone at heights up to 140 m. The article [10] was focused on the analysis and determination of the vertical profile of the distribution of particulate matter. The six-rotor robot was equipped with a PM2.5 sensor, and measurements were made at heights up to 1000 m. In [11], a low-cost sensor-based system was proposed, mounted on a quadrocopter robot.…”