Development and Application of a United States wide correction for PM2.5 data collected with the PurpleAir sensor
Citation:
Barkjohn, K., B. Gantt, AND A. Clements. Development and Application of a United States wide correction for PM2.5 data collected with the PurpleAir sensor. Atmospheric Measurement Techniques. Copernicus Publications, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany, 14(6):4617–4637, (2021). https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-4617-2021
Impact/Purpose:
Interest and concern about air quality has grown in recent years. Simultaneously, growth in the popularity and use of air sensors across the US has also occurred. However, adoption of this technology is limited due to uncertainty and variation in the quality of the data provided. This work evaluates the performance of a popular low-cost PM2.5 sensor (PurpleAir) across the U.S.. It seeks to inform sensor users of potential data accuracy issues and potential correction methods applicable to both this sensor and other similar low-cost sensors. This work focusses on performance over a broader range of locations and longer time periods than previous work with PurpleAir sensors. This abstract is for a paper for publication in Atmospheric Measurement Techniques.
Description:
PurpleAir sensors, which measure particulate matter (PM), are widely used by individuals, community groups, and other organizations including state and local air monitoring agencies. PurpleAir sensors comprise a massive global network of more than 10,000 sensors. Previous performance evaluations have typically studied a limited number of PurpleAir sensors in small geographic areas or laboratory environments. While useful for determining sensor behavior and data normalization for these geographic areas, little work has been done to understand the broad applicability of these results outside these regions and conditions. Here, PurpleAir sensors operated by air quality monitoring agencies are evaluated in comparison to collocated ambient air quality regulatory instruments. In total, almost 12,000 24-hour averaged PM2.5 measurements from collocated PurpleAir sensors and Federal Reference Method (FRM) or Federal Equivalent Method (FEM) PM2.5 measurements were collected across diverse regions of the United States (U.S.), including 16 states. Consistent with previous evaluations, under typical ambient and smoke impacted conditions, the raw data from PurpleAir sensors overestimate PM2.5 concentrations by about 40% in most parts of the U.S. A simple linear regression reduces much of this bias across most U.S. regions, but adding a relative humidity term further reduces the bias and improves consistency in the biases between different regions. More complex multiplicative models did not substantially improve results when tested on an independent dataset. The final PurpleAir correction reduces the root mean square error (RMSE) of the raw data from 8 µg m-3 to 3 µg m-3 with an average FRM or FEM concentration of 9 µg m-3. This correction equation, along with proposed data cleaning criteria, has been applied to PurpleAir PM2.5 measurements across the U.S. in the AirNow Fire and Smoke Map (fire.airnow.gov) and has the potential to be successfully used in other air quality and public health applications.
URLs/Downloads:
DOI: Development and Application of a United States wide correction for PM2.5 data collected with the PurpleAir sensor