AAAR 35th Annual Conference October 17 - October 21, 2016 Oregon Convention Center Portland, Oregon, USA
Abstract View
A Low-Cost Black Carbon Monitor for a Community Air Quality Network
JULIEN CAUBEL, Troy Cados, Chelsea V. Preble, Annie Rosen, Thomas Kirchstetter, University of California, Berkeley
Abstract Number: 686 Working Group: Instrumentation and Methods
Abstract Small, low-cost air pollution sensors present community members and researchers with new opportunities to monitor air quality at the local scale. In the current study, we are developing a black carbon sensor and air-monitoring network in West Oakland. West Oakland is a San Francisco Bay Area residential/industrial community adjacent to regional port and rail yard facilities, and is surrounded by major freeways. As such, the community is heavily affected by diesel particulate matter emissions from heavy-duty diesel trucks, locomotives, and ships associated with freight movement. In partnership with Environmental Defense Fund, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, and the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project, we will be collaborating with community stakeholders to deploy and maintain a 100-sensor black carbon measurement network for a period of several months.
The sensors employ a filter-based light transmission method to measure black carbon and utilize cellular data communication to operate as remote nodes within the distributed urban network. Each node is battery powered and operates at low sample flow rate to enable unattended deployment. A key challenge that has been overcome is the prevention of water condensation in the sensor during cold periods through the use of adequate insulation. In field trials over several weeks, the sensors were deployed at three monitoring locations. The sensors provided black carbon concentrations comparable to commercial instruments, and operated unattended for about a week until the particle collection filter and battery required replacement.