Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37830, USA.
National Exposure Research Laboratory, Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711, USA.
Sensors (Basel). 2018 Dec 7;18(12):4314. doi: 10.3390/s18124314.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is involved in the discovery, evaluation, and application of low-cost air quality (AQ) sensors to support citizen scientists by directly engaging with them in the pursuit of community-based interests. The emergence of low-cost (<$2500) sensors have allowed a wide range of stakeholders to better understand local AQ conditions. Here we present results from the deployment of the EPA developed Citizen Science Air Monitor (CSAM) used to conduct approximately five months (October 2016⁻February 2017) of intensive AQ monitoring in an area of Puerto Rico (Tallaboa-Encarnación, Peñuelas) with little historical data on pollutant spatial variability. The CSAMs were constructed by combining low-cost particulate matter size fraction 2.5 micron (PM) and nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) sensors and distributed across eight locations with four collocated weather stations to measure local meteorological parameters. During this deployment 1 h average concentrations of PM and NO₂ ranged between 0.3 to 33.6 µg/m³ and 1.3 to 50.6 ppb, respectively. Peak concentrations were observed for both PM and NO₂ when conditions were dominated by coastal-originated winds. These results advanced the community's understanding of pollutant concentrations and trends while improving our understanding of the limitations and necessary procedures to properly interpret measurements produced by low-cost sensors.
美国环境保护署（EPA）参与了低成本空气质量（AQ）传感器的发现、评估和应用，通过直接与公民科学家合作，支持他们追求社区利益，从而为公民科学家提供支持。低成本（<$2500）传感器的出现使得各种利益相关者能够更好地了解当地的 AQ 状况。在这里，我们展示了 EPA 开发的公民科学空气监测器（CSAM）的部署结果，该监测器用于在波多黎各（塔拉拉博亚-恩塞纳达，佩尼亚斯）的一个地区进行大约五个月（2016 年 10 月至 2017 年 2 月）的密集 AQ 监测，该地区历史上关于污染物空间变异性的数据很少。CSAMs 是通过将低成本的 2.5 微米（PM）和二氧化氮（NO₂）传感器组合而成，并分布在八个位置，每个位置都有四个天气站，以测量当地的气象参数。在这次部署中，PM 和 NO₂的 1 小时平均浓度分别在 0.3 到 33.6 µg/m³和 1.3 到 50.6 ppb 之间。当条件主要由沿海起源的风主导时，PM 和 NO₂的浓度都达到了峰值。这些结果提高了社区对污染物浓度和趋势的理解，同时也提高了我们对正确解释低成本传感器产生的测量值的局限性和必要程序的理解。
