Performance Evaluation and Community Application of Low-Cost Sensors for Ozone and Nitrogen Dioxide

Rachelle M Duvall; Russell W Long; Melinda R Beaver; Keith G Kronmiller; Michael L Wheeler; James J Szykman

doi:10.3390/s16101698

Performance Evaluation and Community Application of Low-Cost Sensors for Ozone and Nitrogen Dioxide

Sensors (Basel). 2016 Oct 13;16(10):1698. doi: 10.3390/s16101698.

Authors

Rachelle M Duvall¹, Russell W Long², Melinda R Beaver³, Keith G Kronmiller⁴, Michael L Wheeler⁵, James J Szykman^{6

7}

Affiliations

¹ Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 109 T.W. Alexander Drive, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711, USA. duvall.rachelle@epa.gov.
² Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 109 T.W. Alexander Drive, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711, USA. long.russell@epa.gov.
³ Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 109 T.W. Alexander Drive, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711, USA. beaver.melinda@epa.gov.
⁴ Jacobs Technology Inc., 600 William Northern Boulevard, Tullahoma, TN 37388, USA. kronmiller.keith@epa.gov.
⁵ Jacobs Technology Inc., 600 William Northern Boulevard, Tullahoma, TN 37388, USA. wheeler.michael@epa.gov.
⁶ Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 109 T.W. Alexander Drive, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711, USA. james.j.szykman@nasa.gov.
⁷ NASA Langley Research Center, 11 Langley Boulevard, Hampton, VA 23681, USA. james.j.szykman@nasa.gov.

Abstract

This study reports on the performance of electrochemical-based low-cost sensors and their use in a community application. CairClip sensors were collocated with federal reference and equivalent methods and operated in a network of sites by citizen scientists (community members) in Houston, Texas and Denver, Colorado, under the umbrella of the NASA-led DISCOVER-AQ Earth Venture Mission. Measurements were focused on ozone (O₃) and nitrogen dioxide (NO₂). The performance evaluation showed that the CairClip O₃/NO₂ sensor provided a consistent measurement response to that of reference monitors (r² = 0.79 in Houston; r² = 0.72 in Denver) whereas the CairClip NO₂ sensor measurements showed no agreement to reference measurements. The CairClip O₃/NO₂ sensor data from the citizen science sites compared favorably to measurements at nearby reference monitoring sites. This study provides important information on data quality from low-cost sensor technologies and is one of few studies that reports sensor data collected directly by citizen scientists.

Keywords: citizen science; electrochemical sensor; low-cost sensors; nitrogen dioxide; ozone; performance evaluation.