Hi Folks,
In the town where I like, the Mayor and municipal council expressed some bold Sustainability goals for the year 2030, and with upcoming elections in March, they seek cooperation from its citizens. One of the many specific targets aims at improving the quality of the air that we breathe.
I'm participating in a Citizen Science project that, with support from the city, therefore wants to have a better view on what the actual air quality is, in order to pinpoint problem areas and see if progress can be detected. Part of that project involves the construction of a large number of relatively affordable measuring stations and establishing a LoRaWAN network structure for the automatic transmission of the data. By using relatively 'low-cost' stations, we will be able to create a more finely meshed sampling grid with measuring stations than the current official national measuring grid can offer. We are also collaborating with the authorities (RIVM, KNMI) that manage those official measuring stations, a.o. by calibrating our simple sensors against their elaborate systems, by periodically running them in parallel at the same location (to set a baseline and monitor for drift over time). Those authorities benefit from our finer mesh actual sampling instead of calculating and modeling between the official stations.
As the required components are coming in from all over the globe, and we have time to do some soldering, programming, 3D-design, QA validation of parts and results, and calibration of the different sub-units, I've done the first test with a pilot unit that amongst others will test for Particulate Matter that's suspended in the air. What better time to test than with the traditional new year's fireworks ...
Attached a graph of what one of my (not yet calibrated) sensors picked up, and the air was cleaner than the years before, due to fewer fireworks (some official ones got cancelled due to windy conditions), strong winds/gusts, frequent rain showers, and relatively high temperatures (which prevented fog/smog from forming). The normal situation on a Sunday would show PM10 values of 3-5 µg/m³ when there is little traffic, with a somewhat higher level during the week's working days and temporary peaks (to some 25 µg/m³ on dry days which is above the legal limits) during the rush-hours. The fireworks obviously scored much worse air quality with a peak PM10 reading of 105.1 µg/m³, and that was a relatively modest outcome compared to previous years that also started disappearing sooner than usual, it took something like 1 or 2 days in the previous years to get back to normal levels.
I wish all the LuLa readers a happy and clean 2018.
Cheers,
Bart