2017 Year in Review

2017 has come to its end. Here are the Top 5 articles on See The Air Blog for this year. I want to thank all of my readers for the loyalty that they have given me. Many of you are following me on Twitter and I would like to invite new readers to follow me as well on Twitter because I comment and discuss a lot of topics there too.

The Countdown

5. On the fifth position we can see articles about the DIY Sensors like the OK Lab Stuttgart – PM DIY Monitor and the OurAirQuality DIY PM Monitor which had a lot of visits and people were very interested on them because they offer affordable air quality monitoring plus they fill a market gap for outdoor AQ monitoring for the consumers.

4. On the fourth position is my book See The Air Book. I am very exited for being in this place. People are appreciating the effort I have done and I am very grateful to all of you. Some have offered to translate the book in Chinese and Arabic among others and many have asked me for a Spanish version which it is coming.

3. On the third position we can find the uHoo Review. uHoo is one of the devices with an abundant quantity of sensors for air quality monitoring. People are very interested to know how the device works and the sensors it uses.

2. On the second position we can see a review again and this time about the AirVisual Review. The AirVisual review is for much longer time on my blog so it is normal the position it possesses. Of course it is a great device with one of the best PM sensor out there for the consumers.

1. On the first position for the 2017 ranking we can see the Device Companions. With over 22,000 visits and still counting it has been the number one reason people are visiting my blog from Google and other search engines.

 

Creativity against Air Pollution

Throughout time researchers have been trying to monitor air pollution and create urban pollution maps as precise as possible. This isn’t an easy task for a couple of reasons. Firstly, a lot of sensors are needed to be spread all around the city and then the researchers have to decide if the sensors will be stationary or will be mobile. Some clever and interesting projects to combat the air pollution with mobile Air Quality Monitors (AQMs) are.

The Pigeon Air Patrol

pigeon air patrol

A creative way for mobile Air Quality Monitors to be spread around the city. The pigeons wear a small device with O3, VOC and NO2 sensors. While they are flying around the city or sitting on a traffic light to rest, the sensors are constantly logging air quality data. The data will be later analysed by the researchers when the pigeons return to the base. This air monitoring campaign run for 3 days only and the pigeons are now back to their normal life.

More info at: http://www.pigeonairpatrol.com

 

The Taxi Air Quality Monitors

taxi air monitoring

This innovate idea for monitoring urban air quality was made by James Puderer. The idea is to place Air Quality Monitors on top and inside the Taxis/Cabs sign and allow them to do their normal and daily trips around the city while they are logging air quality data. Basically it is an Android Things based data logger with a host of environmental sensors, GPS, and battery. In this project he uses temperature, humidity, pressure, and air-borne particulate PM10 – PM2.5 sensors.

More info at: https://www.hackster.io/james-puderer/distributed-air-quality-monitoring-using-taxis-69647e

5th Graders Monitor Their Air Quality

kids school pollution.jpg

We all know how busy school roads can be, especially during peak hours when parents leave and pick up their kids from schools. Definitely the air quality is very bad during that time. Some universities, colleges and organizations have decided to track the air pollution from a different perspective by giving special backpack to some of the students, backpacks with a GPS and air quality sensors. Students are responsable to carry the backpack AQM with them and monitor the air quality. Later the experts will analyze the data that the students had logged on their backpack AQM.

https://www2.le.ac.uk/colleges/scieng/research/airquality/monitoring

http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/newsandeventspggrp/imperialcollege/newssummary/news_1-2-2012-11-4-5

https://kithub.cc/2017/03/train-kids-monitor-air-quality/

http://www.ucdenver.edu/academics/colleges/PublicHealth/About/news/ResearchNews/Pages/Fort-Collins-kids-test-air-pollution-for-CSU-researchers.aspx