Using low-cost PM monitors to detect local changes of air quality

Abstract

Air pollution has a negative impact on human health. To care for air in Poland and around the world its quality is monitored. Thus, it is possible to develop appropriate plans for improving air quality in certain areas. Unfortunately, the number of traditional, professional, and stationary devices is usually insufficient. This article presents the concept of using low-cost PM measuring devices to increase the spatiotemporal resolution of air quality measurements supplementing the network of reference devices. The example of Nowy Sącz shows the use of such devices for the detection of urban areas with locally increased values of pollutants originating from low-level emissions. For this purpose, it has been used and compares data regarding the concentration of PM10 from low-cost devices with data from the referential station. To detect local “hot-spots” it has also applied wind speed measurements. This article shows that local PM hot-spots can be detected – especially on days with low wind speeds.