One of the benefits of using low cost air quality measurement devices (such as UPods and YPods) is the ability to deploy many of them in a small spatial area and help quantify the variation of air pollutants in a very localized setting. The use of low cost electrochemical sensors makes this type of study financially possible, and the co-location and calibration procedures developed by the Hannigan group help to convert the raw sensor data into concentrations of pollutants. These calibrations also take into consideration sensor error and bias in order to produce meaningful results. For more information on the UPod hardware and software go to 

 

The current studies being conducted by the lab involve measuring the spatial variability of ozone in areas ranging from 1 to 100 km^2. There are projects being conducted by group members in both LA and Boulder. The goal is to use the data to develop better understanding of how pollutants vary within a city and how they relate to different meteorological parameters and land use patterns. These findings could be useful to regulatory agencies or air quality professionals in order to help them reduce harmful pollutants and also notify citizens of times of day and locations of dangerous pollutant levels.