Padre mentioned in one of the episodes that a UC Berkeley student was developing air pollution se...

[G+_Fred Miller]

Padre mentioned in one of the episodes that a UC Berkeley student was developing air pollution sensors. I found these sensors developed through a kickstarter program. They are attached through something called the http://airqualityegg.com/  http://shop.wickeddevice.com/product-category/air-quality-egg/ which is a CPU for the sensors.  the AirQuality egg has a whole network of users that publishes the data.  They have sensors for the likely type of air pollution in your area. In my case, I need PM2.5 and Ozone O3. As you can see from my attached picture, I have a real concern about air pollution since it affects my daily life. Some days I can see 80 miles across the San Joaquin Valley and other days I can see 10 miles from my house. It is not clear to me how the sensor data is interpreted.  For example, particulates could rise because someone is using a leaf blower around their property. What does that indicate about the ambient air pollution?  I believe that it means something about leaf blowing, but it doesn't mean anything about the region’s or the neighborhood's air pollution.  The official Air Quaility District sensors are mounted on Towers and sited to control for contamination that would interfere with the regional meaning of the data.  Nevertheless, if one is skilled at tying the data to regional data then the sensors could be a real asset to the regional agencies.  Air pollution is influenced by weather conditions as well as heating and transportation technology.  People like to use wood stoves because there are lots of free trees.  In the summer, we have high pressure that is like a lid on the air and helps to cook NOx and Vocs into ozone.