![]() ![]() The qualitative (even if not a specific-standard, quantitative) accuracy of is astounding! Alongside real-time wind direction maps (like ), I've successfully predicted when it's safe to spend time outside, and for approximately how long. With the settings I recommended above, and in my area that now has dozens if not a hundred (in a wider area) instruments, I can SEE smoke travelling minute by minute across the city and the county. when power goes out in an area with a few or more instruments, one can see just by looking at that area of the map not only where power was lost, but when it was lost.įinally, I've personally benefited immensely from PA maps during fire season. I just saw one that's been appearing on the map for over a hundred days!īut even the gray dots can provide useful data in some cases, e.g. ![]() Also, when the whole instrument is not functioning, a gray dot for that instrument is shown on the map. when one of the two lasers is obviously failing, the data from the failing laser is still included in the air quality averages. PA's data filtering on their map is too weak when it comes to discounting the obvious failures mentioned above, but again, it seems to lean to their customer's point of view rather than the more public point of view. Most failures are immediately obvious, and easily discounted when one can see the errors as compared to other, obviously functional instruments. It's important to note, that even if these instruments are not 100% accurate in 100% of the instruments, I've concluded they're close to 100% consistent when compared to each other, and when one mentally filters out the very few instruments that are failing. 3) Ten minute averaging gives an OK, overall picture of wide areas, but "Show Realtime" does, too, plus it shows up-to-the-minute data that I've found extremely useful for my local (neighborhood) area. 2) Uncheck "Inside Sensors" unchecked should be the default, except for the rare person who's only looking at the map for personal data. 1) Instead of using "none" as a conversion factor, I use the LRAPA standard. (Generally I highly dislike marketing department strategies, but PA's seems to be too humble?)ĭo not use the default settings the one first sees in the lower left control panel. I agree with your observations, but they're missing a couple of very significant workarounds, that I wish PA - or at least their marketing department - should be pointing out. ![]() I've appreciated PurpleAir (PA) ever since discovering them during the 2017 fires in northern California. In Cache County, PM2.5 concentrations were highest, but still DAQ sensors peaked at 47 ug/m3, still in the unhealthy for sensitive groups category. These observations are consistent with air quality in the moderate or unhealthy for sensitive groups depending on location. At Hawthorne Elementary, hourly PM2.5 concentrations peaked at 37 ug/m3, on the low end of unhealthy for sensitive groups.Įlsewhere last night, DAQ sensors in Davis County peaked at 30 ug/m3, Tooele County at 39 ug/m3 (although there was a spike to 54 at 11 AM), and Weber County at 23 ug/m3. However, data from Utah Division of Air Quality sensors, as well as sensors operated by the University of Utah, showed PM2.5 concentrations to be much lower. Air quality should continue to deteriorate across valleys into tomorrow morning as the inversion lowers benches should improve greatly for the AM. In their tweet, they included maps with PurpleAir observations.Ĭurrent air quality in the Red (Unhealthy) category across much of the Wasatch Front, Tooele Valley and Cache Valley. Last night, the National Weather Service tweeted that air quality was in the red across much of the Wasatch Front, Tooele Valley, and Cache Valley. However, the limitations of these observations needs to be recognized. (2020) also found PurpleAir sensors overestimated PM2.5 concentrations in the field.ĭata from PurpleAir sensors is now being used on local news broadcasts and by the National Weather Service. In other words, during what many Utahns refer to as inversions. (2017) examined the performance of PurpleAir sensors compared to research grade instruments and while they found good correlation, they also found that it overestimated particulate matter concentrations during cold air pools. What this means is that while one can see that the east side has relatively clean air compared to the central and northwest valley in the map above, the actual values for PM2.5 concentrations may be off. It should be noted, however, that while useful for examining the spatial patterns of pollution, PurpleAir sensors can have low absolute accuracy. ![]()
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