Low-Cost Air Samplers & Sensors

The emergence of relatively low-cost air samplers and sensors has created greater opportunities for community-based air measurements. These devices often have lower accuracy and precision than conventional regulatory monitors, but their ability to be deployed in greater numbers across a community or geographic region compensates for their lower data quality. Low-cost devices include passive samplers that collect material to be analyzed later in the laboratory, or sensors that monitor and transmit data continuously. 

The list of pollutants that can be measured with these devices is growing, but includes particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometers (PM_2.5), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), CO₂, and NO₂. A common application for low cost devices is determining pollutant variability across a community or over a month or year. Another feature of low-cost and portable sensors is that they can be co-located indoors, outdoors, and even on people at a given location to estimate the relative importance of different pollutant sources.

AQS is conducting research to implement low cost and portable air samplers and sensors in a variety of environments. These include indoor residences, indoor recreational facilities, and outdoor community sites with application to satellite-based pollutant model validation.

AQS projects on  low cost and portable air samplers and sensors:

• Passive PM sampler study of smoke exposures: "Composition of particulate matter during a wildfire smoke episode in an urban area" (Aerosol Science & Technology, 2021)
  
• Low-cost PM2.5 network to assess windblown dust in an agricultural community: "Spatial Particulate Fields during High Winds in the Imperial Valley, California" (Atmosphere, 2020)
  
• NASA-funded passive PM air sampler study to validate satellite data across urban areas: "Field testing a low-cost passive aerosol sampler for long-term measurement of ambient PM2.5 concentrations and particle composition" (Atmospheric Environment, 2019)
  
• Performance evaluation of low cost sensors: "A low-cost particle counter as a real-time fine-particle mass monitor" (Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts, 2013)
  
• Passive PM sampling in remote rural areas to assess smoke from agricultural burns: "Measurement of ambient particulate matter concentrations and particle types near agricultural burns using electron microscopy and passive samplers" (Atmospheric Environment, 2012)
  
• Community-based passive PM air sampling near agricultural burns: "Agricultural burning monitored for air pollutants in Imperial County; exposure reduction recommendations developed" (CA Agriculture, 2012)
• Investigation using personal and stationary portable sensors in an indoor recreational facility: "PM2.5 and CO Concentrations Inside an Indoor Go-Kart Facility" (Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene, 2010)
  

Other resources:

• Air quality sensor performance evaluations (AQ-SPEC) by South Coast Air Quality Management District
  
• US EPA low-cost sensor toolbox