A UK local authority installed nine AQMesh systems at different points across a busy town, measuring nitrogen dioxide (NO2) at 15 minute intervals, monitoring 24/7. These locations were established monitoring points, where measurements had been taken previously using diffusion tubes, limited to one average reading every few weeks.
Autonomous power can make all the difference in hyper-local air quality monitoring. With particulate matter sampling needing a little more power than passive gas sensors, solar is the go-to power option, rather than internal battery. Most systems require sufficiently little energy that they can be powered by a relatively small solar panel, but it’s the back-up power management that makes all the difference.
AQMesh small sensor air quality monitoring systems have been in use around the world for over a decade now, but it remains the case that support challenges are always greater with ..
2023 is set to be a big year for AQMesh’s monitoring of particulate matter, with developments in both hardware and data processing offering improved accuracy across key PM fractions.
2022 marked 10 years of innovation and leadership from AQMesh. To highlight the team’s experience, ongoing forward-thinking and its commitment to pushing the capabilities of small sensor systems, here are the top 10 things AQMesh developed first and refined since it commercially launched in 2012.
AQMesh is one of three winners of the Air Quality & Sport Challenge, an initiative by ThinkSport whose aim is to create solutions to help sport organisations tackle climate change.
AQMesh has been commercially available since 2012 – making it the most proven and relied upon small sensor system on the market. During the last ten years, the team at AQMesh has never stood still by continuously improving the design and functionality of the product in response to the many challenges that localised air quality monitoring has presented around the globe.
AQMesh is now being supplied and supported directly in the UK, as a positive step towards providing fast, direct manufacturer support.
Data collected as part of the UKRI SPF Clean Air Program has proven that AQMesh out-of-the-box performance for PM2.5 exceeds new US EPA targets*, with excellent results for PM1 and PM10 as well.
AQMesh has announced this week that all new pods will receive a free 5-year manufacturer’s warranty, as opposed to the standard 12-month guarantee.
AQMesh is designed to be easy to install and use anywhere in the world. Accessing the global mobile phone network has offered straightforward connectivity for the thousands of pods in use, allowing users to focus on measuring local air quality.
Air quality is rarely out of the news and there are many initiatives in this field, from developments around conventional monitoring to IoT and smart city initiatives.
Refinement and development of the AQMesh small sensor air quality monitoring system over many years, and through numerous global co-location comparisons, brings a wealth of unique benefits.
The results of the 2019 AIRLAB Microsensors Challenge* were revealed in Paris on 21st January and AQMesh was awarded the highest score for accuracy of all multi-parameter products presented for monitoring of outdoor air quality.
Whilst not the only AQMesh pods still in regular use since the product was commercially launched in 2013, two AQMesh pods are still in use in Spain and demonstrate the long life of this small sensor air quality monitoring system.
The AQMesh small sensor air quality monitoring system already offers flexibility of monitoring location – through independent power and communications – as well as high data quality and traceability. Now the platform is even more flexible offering up to 20 different data channels.
North Americans will be well aware of the particularly harsh weather in the early months of 2019, but AQMesh has taken conditions in its stride. The AQMesh stated operating range of -20°C to + 40°C is backed up by long-term operation across a wide range of climates
Recent co-location comparison trials against certified reference equipment continue to prove AQMesh performance and reliability for localised air quality monitoring.
AQMesh is now able to offer CO2 and H2S within its range of gas options for local air pollution monitoring. The NDIR CO2 sensor, which can be offered within a single AQMesh pod alongside five other gases out of NO, NO2, O3, CO, SO2 or H2S, as well as PM1, PM2.5, PM10, temperature, pressure and humidity, has been developed to deliver a higher performance than those typically used for indoor air quality monitoring.
The team at AQMesh continue to receive many enquiries from smart city initiatives and are concerned that integrators risk undermining entire projects by distributing meaningless or misleading air quality information.
A new paper published by the American Chemical Society (ACS Sensors) reviews the use of amperometric electrochemical gas sensors for monitoring inorganic gases that affect urban air quality.
AQMesh has been measuring ozone (O3) using small sensors since 2011 and the readings from the latest generation electrochemical sensor, using AQMesh v4.2.3 processing, as compared to co-located certified reference readings, consistently show an R2 of over 0.9 with an accuracy ±10ppb (20µg/m3).
At the IAPSC in May 2017, Professor Rod Jones of the University of Cambridge presented his case study on large scale deployment of sensors, which included showing how AQMesh can be used to discriminate between local sources of pollution and regional sources of pollution.
Recent co-location comparison trials using the latest AQMesh processing (v4.2.3) have further proven AQMesh performance with impressive R2 values in excess of O.8 and 0.9 for NO2 in Benelux, Slovakia and Spain.
Leading small sensor air quality monitor, AQMesh, has recently been shown to work alongside passive samplers and air quality models, as well as complementing reference station networks. A recent study shows AQMesh calibration against diffusion tubes and two 2017 conferences have highlighted the potential of such systems used in an air quality network.
At the RSC AAMG event on ‘Air Quality Monitoring: Evolving Issues and New Technologies’ Professor Rod Jones of the University of Cambridge presented a paper showing very encouraging results.
An AQMesh pod used in the recent Citi-Sense project in Norway was returned to us at the end of the project, and we were surprised at the condition.
A new generation of air quality monitors is now being offered to provide localised, real-time air quality readings – but the potential benefit is only just starting to be realised.
The emergence of sensors capable of measuring the gases and particles that make up air pollution, especially in cities and industrial areas, has driven many academic studies which evaluate the sensors and compare performance against reference methodology.