AQEarth is a project to provide community-based air monitoring at five different locations.

The project is a combination of local air monitoring (mobile and fixed sites) and educational and public outreach efforts. The AQEarth program is being deployed in three U.S. communities (Fort Collins, CO; Anchorage, AK; Atlanta, GA), one Tribal area (TriChapter Region, Navajo Nation), and one international city (Mexico City) over three years.

AQEarth is designed to work with these communities to enable them and other local stakeholders (e.g., schools) to monitor local air pollution. The AQEarth program uses three novel technologies to measure local air pollution:

The PAM

The Personal Air Monitor (PAM) allows individuals (e.g., students and other community members) to measure the air pollutants like CO, CO2, particulate matter (PM1, PM2.5), and total volatile organic compounds (tVOCs) along sidewalks, schools, workplaces, and inside vehicles like cars and buses.

The AQLite

The AQLite measures CO, PM2.5, and Federal Equivalence Method O3, along with tVOCs and CO2, the primary tracer of combustion and the most significant greenhouse gas. The AQLite is designed to be easy to deploy and can run using solar energy.

The AQSync

AQSync is a fixed-base monitoring station containing highly accurate FEM or FEM-grade miniaturized instruments measuring PM1, PM2.5, O3, NO2, NO, CO2, CO, and tVOCs. The AQSync serves both as a walk-by or drive-by reference station for maintaining the calibrations of the PAM and MAPS and as a long-term monitoring station for determining the diurnal, day-to-day, and seasonal variations of air pollutants at that location.

The AQEarth program is flexible and aims to fully understand the interests and needs of participating organizations and help identify community priorities. Outcomes the sites may choose to pursue include:

  • Using new measurement technologies to understand local air quality sources.

  • Pursuing public outreach and education to strengthen community connection and trust.

  • Increasing resident knowledge of air quality issues.

  • Reducing exposure by identifying pollution sources.

  • Developing mitigation strategies to improve public health.

AQEarth is a collaborative project between 2B Technologies, TD Environmental Services, Montrose Environmental Group, and the Denver Department of Public Health and Environment. Each deployment is scheduled for one year of measurements. The AQEarth team will actively engage with city officials, Tribal government, and community groups to adapt AQEarth to meet the local air monitoring needs. AQEarth is funded by the National Institutes of Health Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) program and seeks to spur new products and services while contributing to the greater improvements to public health.