Sonoma Technology Sensor Study Examined Low-Cost Sensor Performance Under Real-World Conditions

Emerging low-cost air quality sensors offer an opportunity to cost-effectively monitor air pollution, but few studies have quantified the accuracy, precision, and reliability of low-cost sensors under real-world conditions. Sonoma Technology completed a 12-week sensor study, which was published in the journal <i><a href="http://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/17/8/1805/htm" target="_blank">Sensors</i></a href>, that examined the performance of two low-cost particulate matter (PM) sensor brands. <br>

This study was conducted in Cuyama Valley, California, in an area where PM concentrations are commonly impacted by wind-blown dust events and regional transport. Sonoma Technology compared the measurements from the low-cost sensors to observations from well-characterized reference instruments, and found that the low-cost sensors demonstrated a high degree of collocated precision and a moderate degree of correlation against the reference instruments.