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Field Performance Evaluation of Four Low-Cost Particulate Matter Sensors (Air Sensor International Conference)
Citation:
Clements, A., M. Srivastava, T. Conner, J. Rice, A. Habel, S. Reece, AND R. Williams. Field Performance Evaluation of Four Low-Cost Particulate Matter Sensors (Air Sensor International Conference). Air Sensor International Conference, Davis, CA, September 12 - 14, 2018.
Impact/Purpose:
Presented at the 2018 Air Sensor International Conference
Description:
Low-cost (<$2500) particulate matter (PM) sensors are appealing to many stakeholders including professional researchers, community groups, and citizen scientists. Although the low-cost, compact size, and portability of air quality sensors makes these devices attractive for community level monitoring and for citizen science applications, detailed performance evaluations are needed to better understand the data quality. In recent years, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has conducted a number of evaluations on low-cost air quality sensors with full results published on the Air Sensor Toolbox for Citizen Scientists, Researchers and Developers (www.epa.gov/air-sensor-toolbox). This work presents results from the evaluation of four PM sensors – TES 5322 Air Quality Monitor, Plantower PMS 7003, PurpleAir PA-II-SD, and Aeroqual Portable Particulate Monitor PM10/PM2.5. Each sensor was deployed in triplicate for a period of at least 30 days between October 2017 and March 2018 at the Ambient Air Innovation Research Site (AIRS) test platform on EPA’s campus in Research Triangle Park, NC. Sensors were collocated with nearby meteorological and Federal Equivalent Method (FEM) instruments, and data were compared to evaluate the sensor performance. Results include comparison to FEM measurements (accuracy, bias, reproducibility), examination of environmental variables (e.g. temperature, relative humidity) that influence performance, and observations about the ease-of-use and reliability of each sensor.
