Building-block sensor
The building-block (Lego) sensor is a hands-on teaching module that illustrates how light scattering can be used to detect particle pollution.
AirU package
The AirU package was distributed to Salt Lake Valley schools, teachers, and students. See our General FAQ and Sensor Data FAQ pages for additional information. Please contact us if you are a school, parent, or student in the valley who would like to request a sensor.
AirU can measure relevant levels of particle and carbon monoxide pollution. It contains sensors for:
- Temperature and relative humidity .
- Intensity of Visible Light
- CO and NO2 with a metal-oxide based sensor.
- GPS location .
- Particulate matter (PM) .
Backup data is stored to a micro SD card. If wifi is available each AirU station will push data to the website. If it is not available, the AirU will store data to the on-board microSD card. If wifi becomes available, AirU will push the data to the online database. The air-quality information is written to a CSV file with a file name of the form "m-d-Y.csv".
Sensor Calibration
Because low-cost sensors can perform inconsistently, we are evaluating PM sensor performance in three different ways:
- Co-locating the PM sensor with federal reference methods at Utah Division of Air Quality’s Hawthorne monitoring station (Kelly et al) during a variety of different pollution events including winter-time inversions, fireworks, and wildfires.
- Evaluating sensor performance in the field.
- Calibrating the PM sensors in an aerosol chamber with two different types of test particles, ammonium nitrate and aluminium oxide. The chamber tests eight PM sensors and a reference sensor. This cylindrical chamber was designed to maximize the uniformity of particle concentration. From this testing we determined that the best estimate for actual PM2.5 concentration (ug/m3) during the winter season is given by multiplying your raw sensor reading by 0.851 and adding 1.16
- More information about AirU sensor measurements can be found at our Sensor Data FAQ.
