AAAR 36th Annual Conference October 16 - October 20, 2017 Raleigh Convention Center Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
Abstract View
CitySpace Air Sensor Network: Evaluating Spatial Gradients of Urban Air Pollution with Low-Cost Air Sensor Technology
STEPHEN FEINBERG, Ron Williams, Gayle Hagler, Judy Low, Larry Smith, Ryan Brown, Daniel Garver, Michael Davis, Michael Miller, Joe Schaefer, John Campbell, Tim McArthur, ORD-US EPA, RTP, NC
Abstract Number: 179 Working Group: Urban Aerosols
Abstract Traditional air monitoring approaches, using regulatory monitors, have historically been used to establish regional-scale trends in air pollutants across large geographical areas. Recent advances in air pollution sensor technologies could provide additional information about nearby sources, support the siting of regulatory monitoring stations, and improve our knowledge of finer-scale spatiotemporal variation of ambient air pollutants and their associated health effects. Sensors are now being developed that are much smaller and lower-cost than traditional ambient air monitoring systems and are capable of being deployed in a nodal pattern to provide greater coverage of a given area. A recent significant sensor network implementation, the CitySpace project, was conducted by the US EPA and the Shelby County Health Department. A total of 16 solar and/or land powered sensor pods that collected one-minute time resolution data of particulate matter, wind direction and speed, temperature and humidity, were deployed across Memphis, TN for six months. The study began in October 2016 and involved local community review and support. The sensor pods were first deployed at the Shelby Farms NCore site to compare their measurements with a regulatory Tapered Element Oscillating Microbalance (TEOM) particulate monitor and establish sensor pod precision. The pods were then deployed at 16 locations throughout the city and surrounding area to develop a wireless sensor network with real-time data streaming capabilities (EPA’s VIPER network). The six-month deployment yielded a substantial data set, with on the order of 200,000 observations per parameter, per pod. After the monitoring period (March 2017), a selection of sensor pods was returned to the Shelby Farms site to evaluate potential changes in sensor performance. Sensor pod pollutant data was normalized to regulatory TEOM data, based on the colocation periods, and used to develop comparisons between locations and explore the spatiotemporal variability of particulate pollution in the Memphis area.