Air quality in urban areas is a growing concern, influenced by factors such as seasons, time of day, and traffic conditions. Continuous monitoring of air quality is essential for enhancing individual well-being and informing societal decision-making. Using low-cost PM sensors offers an affordable and scalable way to track particulate matter levels and improve urban air quality.
This project, initiated at the Microflows and Microscale Heat Transfer Lab in collaboration with the Aerosol Research Group, aims to provide a large-scale, cost-effective solution for continuous air quality monitoring. By leveraging low-cost PM sensors, we focus on tracking particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10) in various environments.
We chose Purple Air‘s outdoor PM sensors, which are WiFi-enabled devices that measure PM levels, ambient temperature, and relative humidity. These low-cost PM sensors store data locally on an SD card and on Thingspeak servers for easy access and visualization through an API.
To ensure the accuracy of the low-cost PM sensors, calibration was performed by co-locating the sensors with a high-precision reference instrument. The sensors were installed outdoors to expose them to the natural conditions under which they would eventually operate. This allowed for a direct comparison of sensor readings against reliable benchmarks while assessing the effects of environmental factors such as humidity and temperature. Correction factors were developed based on this data, significantly improving the sensors’ reliability in real-world conditions. Long-term testing further validated the sensors’ stability and consistency, making them suitable for large-scale air quality monitoring in urban settings.
An early success of this project involved testing and calibrating these sensors in our local environment. The findings demonstrate the potential of low-cost PM sensors to provide actionable insights for air quality improvement. Read more about our findings in the linked article. Stay tuned for further developments!
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