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AIR QUALITY SECTION (AQS)

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 (PM2.5), 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:

Other resources:

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