Air Quality experiments on alternative sensors and prediction model











Air Quality monitoring has existed since the 70's, and surprisingly, the equipement used nowdays is still based on the same technology as in the 70's, i.e Beta Attenation Monitors (aka BAM). Almost 50 years later, in 2014, the progress in technology is now allowing us to use new solutions to monitor the Air Quality, with a quality as good as the BAM monitors, but at a much more affordable cost.

The World Air Quality Index project team is involved in understanding, assessing and verifying those new technologies, and this to ensure that they can realiably replace the more traditional BAM-based setups. In this page, you wil find the list of on-going, planned and concluded experiements.


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On-going experiments

  • The Dylos Air Particule counter: Can it be used as a substitue of more expensive BAM monitors? A one-year long experiments on trying to correlate Dylos and BAM data in Beijing.
  • Low-cost shinyei and samyoung Sensors: Low cost sensors are used in many of the 'Air Sensor Toys' appearing on Internet. But, can those ultra low-cost sensor provide any good information on air quality? Can any reliable AQI be deducted?

Concluded experiments

  • Haier Air Box: A reverse engineering of the Haier AirBox air quality sensor for the smart home.

Planned experiments

  • The GFS Wind forecast: Is it really accurate? How do actual and predicted data differ?
  • Predicting Air Quality: using the GFS wind forecast to predict Air Pollution flux

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If you too, you are an Air Quality enthusiast and are interested in joining the experiments, you can contact us or just simply use the discussion board below to propose new experiments, or enhancement to existing experiements.

And if you are an organization or department with official Air Quality data that you would like to publish on aqicn.org, please refer to our publishing data guide.

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About the Air Quality and Pollution Measurement:

About the Air Quality Levels

AQI Air Pollution Level Health Implications Cautionary Statement (for PM2.5)
0 - 50 Good Air quality is considered satisfactory, and air pollution poses little or no risk None
51 -100 Moderate Air quality is acceptable; however, for some pollutants there may be a moderate health concern for a very small number of people who are unusually sensitive to air pollution. Active children and adults, and people with respiratory disease, such as asthma, should limit prolonged outdoor exertion.
101-150 Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups Members of sensitive groups may experience health effects. The general public is not likely to be affected. Active children and adults, and people with respiratory disease, such as asthma, should limit prolonged outdoor exertion.
151-200 Unhealthy Everyone may begin to experience health effects; members of sensitive groups may experience more serious health effects Active children and adults, and people with respiratory disease, such as asthma, should avoid prolonged outdoor exertion; everyone else, especially children, should limit prolonged outdoor exertion
201-300 Very Unhealthy Health warnings of emergency conditions. The entire population is more likely to be affected. Active children and adults, and people with respiratory disease, such as asthma, should avoid all outdoor exertion; everyone else, especially children, should limit outdoor exertion.
300+ Hazardous Health alert: everyone may experience more serious health effects Everyone should avoid all outdoor exertion

To know more about Air Quality and Pollution, check the wikipedia Air Quality topic or the airnow guide to Air Quality and Your Health.

For very useful health advices of Beijing Doctor Richard Saint Cyr MD, check www.myhealthbeijing.com blog.


Usage Notice: All the Air Quality data are unvalidated at the time of publication, and due to quality assurance these data may be amended, without notice, at any time. The World Air Quality Index project has exercised all reasonable skill and care in compiling the contents of this information and under no circumstances will the World Air Quality Index project team or its agents be liable in contract, tort or otherwise for any loss, injury or damage arising directly or indirectly from the supply of this data.



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