Cost-Effective Air Quality Monitoring System Based on an Open-Source Electronics Platform for Three-Dimensional Atmospheric Environmental Data Collection

Air pollution and extreme weather patterns have become serious issues over the world, especially in highly urbanized areas.  In order to detailed study the atmospheric environmental change, the capability to perform high spatiotemporal resolution atmospheric environmental data collection is highly desired.  In this research, we develop a cost-effective air quality monitoring system based on as open-source electronics platform (Arduino Uno Rev3) with multiple environmental sensing modules including particulate matter (PM) concentration, temperature, humidity, and sound sensors.  An integrated monitoring system with one weather station (precipitation and wind sensors) and two sets of environmental sensors set up in different heights from the ground costs less than USD$300.  The entire system is powered by a battery for portability, and all the data can be stored in a secure digital (SD) memory card for long-term monitoring. The cost-effectiveness makes it feasible for large-scale field tests with three-dimensional (3D) spatial resolution.  In the experiments, the system is tested in urban areas, and the data collection performance has been confirmed.  The results show that the data with single minute resolution can be successfully achieved in real-world scenarios with high air temperature (> 38^oC) and rain conditions for more than 65 hours with a single-time battery setup.  In addition, the data collected from different heights have shown distinct atmospheric environmental patterns suggesting that it is critical to perform 3D high spatiotemporal measurement and modeling for city-scale studies.