Quantification of Utility of Atmospheric Network Technologies (QUANT)

低成本的空气污染传感器在解决英国和全球的空气污染问题上可能发挥着至关重要的作用，它为观测方式提供了一种范式转变。在评估空气污染暴露的健康影响和评估潜在的解决方案时，高时间分辨率和创建这些设备的密集网络的能力将是至关重要的。使用这些设备的组合来提取有关关键健康相关参数的新信息的能力，在了解健康影响和污染物来源方面也具有巨大的潜力。然而，由于报告的传感器信号干扰和传感器变异性等问题，人们对低成本传感器设备缺乏信心，这一潜力正在受到限制。来自世界各地的研究小组试图解决这个问题，但在传感器和应用程序的测试中，传感器和应用程序的巨大差异不可避免地导致了混合信息。从英国清洁空气的角度来看，如果我们要实现这些设备的潜力，就迫切需要在纯粹的英国背景下对这些技术、方法和应用进行彻底的评估。该项目将通过提供对低成本传感器和传感器网络(包括校准方法)的真实世界的开放和可追溯性评估来直接应对这一挑战，并提供有关在英国使用低成本传感器解决空气污染问题的关键信息。这将通过三个不同的工作方案来实现。第一个将在英国的各种城市环境和城市中进行传感器设备评估，以涵盖当地立法、排放、天气等影响空气污染和传感器性能的内在变异性。这将直接挑战设备本身以及用于检索有用空气污染物信息的校准方法和算法。第二个工作包将展示低成本空气污染传感器网络在提供关键的高空间和时间分辨率空气污染数据方面的潜力。这将涉及评估和开发具有成本效益的可追踪网络校准方法，如果要充分发挥这些网络的潜力，这些方法是必不可少的。最终的工作包将通过开发新的方法，利用这些设备的独特优势来提取有关关键污染物的新信息，从而提高低成本传感器数据在特定英国空气质量挑战中的价值。特别是，这将通过从低成本传感器数据中提取关于颗粒物类型和来源的信息，将重点放在对英国生命损失负有最大责任的空气污染物--颗粒物。这将大大加强低成本传感器在暴露和政策干预研究中的使用。这个及时的项目汇集了英国在空气污染领域和使用低成本传感器研究空气污染方面的强大专家团队，他们的专业知识涵盖了化学、仪器开发、工程和数据科学等一系列学科。最终，该项目将提供有关应用低成本传感器作为解决英国空气污染问题的工具的关键信息，以及提高我们对公众暴露、健康影响和关键空气污染物来源的了解的新方法。通过包括英国政策制定者在内的一系列利益相关者的参与，以及对数据和方法的透明和开放获取，该项目将在英国的背景下为这些设备的未来提供可靠的建议。

Low-cost air pollution sensors have a potentially vital role to play in tackling air pollution in the UK and globally, offering a paradigm shift in the way observations are made. The high time resolution and ability to create dense networks of these devices will be essential when evaluating the health impacts of air pollution exposure and assessing potential solutions. The ability to use combinations of these devices to extract new information on key health relevant parameters also has huge potential when it comes to understanding health effects and pollutant sources. This potential is being limited, however, by a lack of confidence in low-cost sensor devices due to reported issues such as interferences on sensor signals and sensor variability. Research from groups across the world have tried to address this problem, but the huge variability in the sensors and applications under which they have been tested has inevitably resulted in mixed messages. From a UK clean air perspective, a thorough evaluation of the technologies, methodologies and applications in a purely UK context is urgently needed if we are to realise the potential of these devices.This project will directly address this challenge through the delivery of a real-world open and traceable assessment of low-cost sensors and sensor networks, including calibration methods, and provide key information on the use of low-cost sensors for tackling air pollution in the UK. This will be achieved through three distinct work packages. The first will perform sensor device assessments in a variety of UK urban environments and cities, in order to cover the inherent variability in local legislation, emissions, weather, etc., that impact air pollution and sensor performance. This will directly challenge both the devices themselves and the calibration methodologies and algorithms used to retrieve useful air pollutant information. The second work package will demonstrate the potential of low-cost air pollution sensor networks to provide crucial high spatial and temporal resolution air pollution data. This will involve the assessment and development of cost effective traceable network calibration methodologies, which are essential if the full potential of these networks are to be realised. The final work package will enhance the value of low-cost sensor data for specific UK air quality challenges through the development of novel methods that use the unique strengths of these devices to extract new information on key pollutants. In particular this will focus on the air pollutant most responsible for loss of life in the UK, particulate matter, by extracting information on particulate matter type and source from low-cost sensor data. This will significantly enhance the use of low-cost sensors for exposure and policy intervention studies. This timely project brings together a strong team of UK experts in the field of air pollution and the use of low-cost sensors for the study of air pollution, with expertise spanning a range of disciplines including chemistry, instrument development, engineering and data science. Ultimately this project will deliver crucial information on the application of low-cost sensors as tools to tackle air pollution in the UK and new methods to improve our understanding of the public exposure, health impacts and sources of key air pollutants. Through the involvement of a range of stakeholders, including UK policy makers, and a transparent and open access approach to data and methods, the project will provide solid advice on the future for these devices in a UK context.