Grantee Research Project Results

2019 Progress Report: The Hawaii Island Volcanic Smog Sensor Network (HI-Vog): Tracking airquality and community engagement near a major emissions hotspot

EPA Grant Number: R836183
Title: The Hawaii Island Volcanic Smog Sensor Network (HI-Vog): Tracking airquality and community engagement near a major emissions hotspot
Investigators: Kroll, Jesse H. , Heald, Colette L.
Institution: Massachusetts Institute of Technology , The Kohala Center
EPA Project Officer: Callan, Richard
Project Period: May 1, 2016 through April 30, 2019 (Extended to April 30, 2022)
Project Period Covered by this Report: May 1, 2019 through April 30,2020
Project Amount: $750,000
RFA: Air Pollution Monitoring for Communities (2014) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Air , Air Quality and Air Toxics , Endocrine Disruptors , Environmental Engineering , Environmental Justice , Watersheds

Objective:

Air quality on the Island of Hawai‘i (“the Big Island”) has traditionally been poor due to high emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2) from Kīlauea Volcano. The resulting “volcanic smog” (“vog”), a mixture of SO2 and fine particulate matter (PM), can have negative impacts on human health as well as agriculture, and consequently is a major concern of local communities. Because of the high variability of the volcanic plume, community members’ exposures to vog could not be easily estimated. The region thus served as a unique test case for the use and assessment of distributed air quality (AQ) networks based on portable low-cost sensors. This project entails the development and deployment of a state-of-the-art community-based AQ sensor network across Hawai‘i Island, for the measurement of SO2 and particulate matter (PM) levels with high spatial and temporal resolution. The network aims to provide improved measurements of air quality and vog exposures across the island, as well as to assess the utility of AQ sensor networks as educational resources and as tools for atmospheric chemistry research.

Progress Summary:

Project activities over this last year focused on three main efforts: (1) continuing analysis of sensor data taken during the 2018 Lower East Rift Zone eruption; (2) deployment of meteorological sensors around the island; and (3) community engagement and educational activities.
In response to the 2018 Kīlauea Lower East Rift Zone (LERZ) eruption (May-August 2018), we had previously designed and built 30 new sensor nodes to measure SO2 and PM, calibrated them by co-location with regulatory-grade monitors, and deployed them around the island within 3 weeks of the beginning of the eruption. From these measurements we are able to quantify the exposures of exposures of the population to both pollutants with high granularity, as well as estimate the rate by which SO2 oxidizes in the atmosphere to form H2SO4 (the main component of PM during the eruption). Since all eruptive activity ended in August 2018, the sensors are now measuring exceedingly clean AQ, as expected; this last year we supplemented the AQ network with a network of meteorological sensors. These 32 sensors, mostly located at schools, measure seven key quantities (temperature, relative humidity, pressure, irradiation, wind speed, wind direction, and precipitation) and save data to a central server in near-real time. The data from these sensors, and climate generally, were a major focus of the educational component of this work, which included two teacher workshops on “Weather, Kilo, and Climate Education”, as well as a number of classroom presentations on these same topics.

Future Activities:

Work in Y5 will center on the further analysis of the AQ data collected during and after the LERZ eruption, including finalizing the pollutant-transformation timescale analysis, and examining the use of particle sensors for identifying different types of PM (e.g., sulfate vs. ash). Finally, we will continue to work with teachers and students in local schools, focusing on the use of data from the AQ and meteorology sensor networks.

Journal Articles on this Report : 1 Displayed | Download in RIS Format

Publications Views
Other project views:	All 11 publications	3 publications in selected types	All 3 journal articles

Publications
Type	Citation	Project	Document Sources
Journal Article	Hagan DH, Isaacman-VanWertz G, Franklin JP, Wallace LMM, Kocar BD, Heald CL, Kroll JH. Calibration and assessment of electrochemical air quality sensors by co-location with regulatory-grade instruments. Atmospheric Measurement Technniques 2018;11(1):315-328.	R836183 (2017) R836183 (2018) R836183 (2019) R836183 (2020) R836183 (Final)	Full-text: EGU-Full Text PDF Exit Abstract: EGU-Abstract HTML Exit

Supplemental Keywords:

Volcanic emissions, air pollution, vog, sulfur dioxide, sulfate, particulate matter, low-cost sensors, sensor networks, community engagement, science curriculum

Relevant Websites:

The Kohala Center Exit

Progress and Final Reports:

Original Abstract

The perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.