The investigators plan to design, develop and deploy 11 prototypes each measuring CO2, CO, NO2, O3, temperature and relative humidity. The ultimate target is to develop these prototypes into a novel instrument that will be a dense, nested grid of approximately 300 nodes. This initial investigation will focus on calibration and design, laying the groundwork for the larger purchase and deployment to follow. This idea has the potential to change the paradigm of environmental science, from one in which high quality measurements are made at a small number of locations for short periods of time, to one in which data are available at much more directly useful spatial resolution and temporal extent. The prototype instrument will be the core element of a large reliable network with detailed coverage over an approximately 800 km2 region.
The instrument setup will serve as the core research project for at least one Berkeley graduate student who will receive an unusually broad interdisciplinary education at the interface of atmospheric chemistry, atmospheric dynamics and engineering. In addition, this instrument will be an available tool for teaching at all educational levels. For example, to the extent possible sensors will be located at participating elementary schools and science museums and will make the observations available in formats useful for the research community and for educational materials in schools and museums.
Oakland is ground zero for the first urban sensor network to provide real-time, neighborhood-by-neighborhood measurements of carbon dioxide – a greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming – as well as other air pollutants. This grant provided pilot funding to design, develop and evaluate key components of a new observing strategy—a dense network—for urban CO2 and air quality. The prototype network will employ 40 sensors spread over a 70-square kilometer (27-square miles) grid, providing information about local carbon dioxide emissions to check on the effectiveness of carbon-reduction strategies now mandated by the state but hard to verify. 15 of these sensors are already installed. Data, details of the project and ongoing activities are publically available at http://beacon.berkeley.edu/. The primary outcome of this research was to build and evaluate and deploy the nodes in this network. We were able to develop several iterations making substantial improvements to the reliability and to our ability to measure several chemicals at once. We were able to make substantial investments in a website insuring a platform for the public and other scientists to easily access our measurements. The network we built is designed to test a suite of novel ideas for how we think about observing the earth’s atmosphere in the complex environs of cities. We have preliminary evidence that measurement of chemicals can inform our understanding of weather potentially improving forecasts. We have other preliminary evidence that we can track individual sources of emissions with a precision of 1km—unprecedented spatial accuracy from a comprehensive, long term observing system. In addition to these core activities, this grant supported education of graduate students, providing a range of opportunities for our team to talk to students in the public about science and climate specifically and it is the basis for our participation in two other NSF supported projects focusing on science education at the K-12 level and our support of another grant focusing on relationships between chemicals in the atmosphere and public health in urban locations
