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On Air Quality

Discussion of the Cumulusutils tool and website generator.

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On Air Quality

Post by HansR »

Air quality is a complex matter. Not so much in terms of technology but because every country has it's own environmental organisation which produces its own research and creates its own Air Quality Indices (AQIs) for Particle Matter, which for the sake of simplicity are often combined with other pollutants like NO2 and O3 , deviate in normative periods (1 hr average, 3 hr average or 24 hr average). This makes it almost impossible to present a unified Air quality image from the AQI perspective. If one seeks compliance with the normative country one supports and/or chooses.

It is clear that devices like the AirLink, PurpleAir and organisations like AirNow are busy setting a de facto standard. My advise to the user would be if you are confused or your country does not really has great support for an Air quality standard, go for the US standard. It is clear, well worked out and supported worldwide.

Many sites show Air Quality worldwide. Look e.g. at PurpleAir , IQAir or Davis (although for the last I can't find the map - Anybody?). A special site is aqicn.org which not only shows a lot of info, has great FAQ but also has a great sensor page. It is a good place to start.

Some scientific articles on sensor comparison and AQI can be found here on the forum with this post. Scientists have looked into these sensors to see how they compare to the official measurements. The cheap sensors compare positively. Some articles on this subject are included as well.

The cheap sensors are often referred to as toys. They are not. Many environmental organisations set up a community of users using this type of sensors to get indicative measurements. They can be a bit compared to WOW but are more open. Take a look at Sensor.Cummunity, Luftdaten.info and the Dutch RIVM community page (leading to Sensor.Community). Look in your own country for organisations like this.

For meteorology most people know where to find the information or are educated in that field. For Air Quality that is less so and it is a good idea to read yourself into the matter. Knowing that an AQI is basically a unit related to the statistic of how many people are submitted to hospital with certain types of diseases and the fact that the AQI is apparently not a clear objective figure like temperature. That is kind of worrying in my opinion.

I will modify and extend this post when and if I find additional info or when required. You are invited to add information yourself in the comments. It is more or less independent of the AirQuality module.

[Edit: 29 November 2020]
While finishing my AirQuality module of CumulusUtils I added this info.

The numbers used by the Air Link (and stored each minute by CMX) are:
  • Minute values;
  • 1 hour running averages;
  • 3 hour running averages;
  • 24 hour running averages;
  • nowcast (see below, also a figure every minute)
The specs of the calculations of nowcast can be found here (the nowcast)) or from the nowcast wiki.

You can easily see from the graphs on CumulusUtils that the difference between the 1hr/3hr and the nowcast running averages is not that big. Nevertheless, the nowcast figure is a hard demand in the VS apparently. Just as the absolute concentrations may differ in percentages from the official figures, it is the trend which shows it all. If a cheap sensor shows 100 μg/m3 and somebody else says it is only 20 μg/m3 than you are in for an argument. And that is the real value of the cheap sensors. That is also where the European sensor.community is appreciated by (e.g.) the Dutch National Health Organisation.

BTW: These sensors become dirty by definition because of the constant airflow through the measurement channel where the laser and the lens are. That needs cleaning once in a while (let's say once a year): opening the sensor, carefully cleaning the dirt away.

[Edit: 13 december 2020]
As AQI is very different in different countries I will publish here the documentation and a summary sheet in the following comment.
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Hans

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Re: On Air Quality

Post by HansR »

Here are the references for the AQI / concentration relation - these are about how CMX calculates the AQI.
The summary is given as an image and the spreadsheet is attached (Open Office format).

Note the huge differences between the AQI and the concentrations per country. It can not be that Belgians are more sensitive to particulate matter then the Dutch. A similar distinction holds for the Americans and the British. There will no doubt be political reasons as to why to do this. Economy and pollution are highly related.

Also note the time for the series 1hr, 3 hr, 24 hr which also determines the levels.

I will think about how to handle this in - specifically - the graphing of the sensor values.
In a later release of CumulusUtils, AQI zones will be displayed which will indicate the air quality alarm level.
The manual and the Help button in the graph will then show what you see and why.
  1. US: https://www.airnow.gov/sites/default/fi ... ay2016.pdf
  2. UK: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... _index.pdf
  3. EU: AQI: http://www.airqualitynow.eu/about_indic ... nition.php
  4. EU: CAQI: https://www.airqualitynow.eu/download/C ... orders.pdf
  5. CA: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Quali ... x_(Canada)
  6. AU: https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/topi ... lity-index
  7. NL: https://www.luchtmeetnet.nl/informatie/ ... ndex-(lki)
  8. BE: https://www.irceline.be/en/air-quality/ ... anguage=en
Schermafbeelding 2020-12-13 152010.png
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Hans

https://meteo-wagenborgen.nl
CMX build 4017+ ● RPi 3B+ ● Raspbian Linux 6.1.21-v7+ armv7l ● dotnet 8.0.3
User avatar
HansR
Posts: 5870
Joined: Sat 20 Oct 2012 6:53 am
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Contact:

Re: On Air Quality

Post by HansR »

I'd like to add a new WHO publication on air quality:
which may come in handy in the confusion of all countries making their own guidelines.
Hans

https://meteo-wagenborgen.nl
CMX build 4017+ ● RPi 3B+ ● Raspbian Linux 6.1.21-v7+ armv7l ● dotnet 8.0.3
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