AAAR 36th Annual Conference October 16 - October 20, 2017 Raleigh Convention Center Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
Abstract View
A Black Carbon Air Quality Network
JULIEN CAUBEL, Troy Cados, Chelsea V. Preble, Thomas W. Kirchstetter, University of California, Berkeley
Abstract Number: 241 Working Group: Instrumentation and Methods
Abstract We developed a portable, low-cost black carbon (BC) sensor for deployment in an air quality network in West Oakland, California. 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 affected by particulate matter emissions from heavy-duty diesel trucks, locomotives, and ships. In partnership with Environmental Defense Fund, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, and the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project, community members and local businesses throughout West Oakland were recruited to host 100 BC sensors. This distributed sensor network was operated over a period of several months to generate a map of BC concentrations that is highly resolved in both space and time.
The sensors employ the filter-based light transmission method to measure BC. Cost, power consumption, and performance are considered in choosing sensor components and operating conditions. Each sensor node in the network transmits data hourly via a cellular connection, and most are fitted with solar panels to extend battery life. Furthermore, a real-time measurement compensation algorithm was developed to reduce the sensor’s response to environmental temperature fluctuations. Dozens of sensors were collocated with commercial instruments at three monitoring locations in the field, and shown to provide BC measurements comparable to the commercial instruments over several weeks.
Following field validation, 150 sensor units were constructed, calibrated and validated in the field for one week to ensure that all units operate reliably and accurately. Completed sensors were deployed to 100 host sites throughout West Oakland and operated for several months. The highly resolved maps of BC concentrations generated by the network represent a marked expansion from traditional regulatory monitoring and will enable a better understanding of air quality in West Oakland and other cities.