AAAR 37th Annual Conference October 14 - October 18, 2019 Oregon Convention Center Portland, Oregon, USA
Abstract View
From Building Blocks to Building Air-Quality Sensors, Air-Quality Estimates and Citizen Scientists
KERRY KELLY, James Moore, Wei Xing, Matt Dailey, Katrina Le, Tofigh Sayahi, Tom Becnel, Pascal Goffin, Miriah Meyer, Pierre-Emanuel Gaillardon, Deborah Burney-Sigman, Jason Weise, Ross Whitaker, Anthony Butterfield, University of Utah
Abstract Number: 38 Working Group: Air Quality Sensors: Low-cost != Low Complexity
Abstract The Salt Lake Valley periodically experiences the highest levels of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in the nation. We have been engaging community members and students across Utah’s Salt Lake Valley as citizen scientists who work in partnership with an interdisciplinary team of researchers to create a distributed online network of approximately 100 low-cost, air-quality sensors. Our website dynamically provides visualizations of neighborhood-scale PM2.5 concentrations. Thus far, this network has generated a rich set of PM measurements, capturing several severe PM episodes resulting from persistent cold air pools, fireworks, wildfires and dust events. We highlight how we calibrate our low-cost PM sensors, exclude suspect readings, and dynamically estimate PM levels (as well as uncertainty) with a Gaussian process model. The results illustrate dramatic geospatial differences in PM2.5 concentration during some of these episodes that would not have been observed from the regulatory monitors alone. Through outreach efforts to local schools, we also engaged students as citizen scientists through activities that: (1) allow them to build their own light-scattering based PM sensor from building blocks and simple electronics; (2) train them on how to be good sensor hosts; and (3) help them make sense of real-world data. Citizen science poses a number of challenges, and we describe some of these and strategies to address them. Our teacher surveys and student feedback suggest that these modules are highly engaging and effective for improving students' awareness of air quality, the principles behind light-scattering based sensors and the geospatial and temporal variations in PM2.5 levels during a variety of pollution episodes.
K. Kelly and P.-E. Gaillardon have an interest in the company Tetrad: Sensor Network Solutions, which commercializes solutions for environmental monitoring.