Articles | Volume 16, issue 19
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4357-2023
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4357-2023
Research article
 | 
05 Oct 2023
Research article |  | 05 Oct 2023

Seasonally optimized calibrations improve low-cost sensor performance: long-term field evaluation of PurpleAir sensors in urban and rural India

Mark Joseph Campmier, Jonathan Gingrich, Saumya Singh, Nisar Baig, Shahzad Gani, Adithi Upadhya, Pratyush Agrawal, Meenakshi Kushwaha, Harsh Raj Mishra, Ajay Pillarisetti, Sreekanth Vakacherla, Ravi Kant Pathak, and Joshua S. Apte

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Cited articles

Apte, J. S. and Pant, P.: Toward cleaner air for a billion Indians, P. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 116, 10614–10616, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1905458116, 2019. a, b
Apte, J. S., Brauer, M., Cohen, A. J., Ezzati, M., and Pope, C. A.: Ambient PM2.5 Reduces Global and Regional Life Expectancy, Environ. Sci. Tech. Let., 5, 546–551, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.estlett.8b00360, 2018. a
Araújo, T., Silva, L., and Moreira, A.: Evaluation of Low-Cost Sensors for Weather and Carbon Dioxide Monitoring in Internet of Things Context, IoT, 1, 286–308, https://doi.org/10.3390/iot1020017, 2020. a
Badura, M., Batog, P., Drzeniecka-Osiadacz, A., and Modzel, P.: Evaluation of Low-Cost Sensors for Ambient PM2.5 Monitoring, Journal of Sensors, 2018, e5096 540, https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/5096540, 2018. a
Bai, L., Huang, L., Wang, Z., Ying, Q., Zheng, J., Shi, X., and Hu, J.: Long-term Field Evaluation of Low-cost Particulate Matter Sensors in Nanjing, Aerosol Air Qual. Res., 20, 242–253, https://doi.org/10.4209/aaqr.2018.11.0424, 2020. a
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We studied a low-cost air pollution sensor called PurpleAir PA-II in three different locations in India (Delhi, Hamirpur, and Bangalore) to characterize its performance. We compared its signal to more expensive reference sensors and found that the PurpleAir sensor was precise but inaccurate without calibration. We created a custom calibration equation for each location, which improved the accuracy of the PurpleAir sensor, and found that calibrations should be adjusted for different seasons.
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