Evaluation of Cairpol and Aeroqual Air Sensors in Biomass Burning Plumes.

Cairpol and Aeroqual air quality sensors measuring CO, CO, NO, and other species were tested in fresh biomass burning plumes in field and laboratory environments. We evaluated sensors by comparing 1-minute sensor measurements to collocated reference instrument measurements. Sensors were evaluated based on the coefficient of determination ( ) between the sensor and reference measurements, by the accuracy, collocated precision, root mean square error (RMSE), and other metrics. In general, CO and CO sensors performed well (in terms of accuracy and values) compared to NO sensors. Cairpol CO and NO sensors had better sensor-versus-sensor agreement (e.g., collocated precision) than Aeroqual CO and NO sensors of the same species. Tests of other sensors (e.g., NH, HS, VOC, NMHC) provided more inconsistent results and need further study. Aeroqual NO sensors had an apparent O interference that was not observed in the Cairpol NO sensors. Although the sensor accuracy lags that of reference-level monitors, with location-specific calibrations they have the potential to provide useful data about community air quality and personal exposure to smoke impacts.