Our Air - Measuring particulate matter yourself in the Northern Netherlands
You tackle the following challenges:
Short content
What: Measuring particulate matter
Where: Northern Netherlands
Sign up: via Sign up – Our air
General information
The Our sky project started in October 2020. In this project, residents from all over the Northern Netherlands are building their own particulate matter meters in order to jointly investigate the air quality in the region. In this way, participants in Onze air learn more about their living environment and contribute to scientific research into air quality. The organization of the project is in the hands of the University of Groningen (RUG). One person can participate per postcode area in Groningen, Friesland and Drenthe. RIVM is one of the knowledge partners in the project.
Measure Our air
In the Our Air project, citizen scientists throughout the Northern Netherlands measure air quality with self-built particulate matter meters. The aim is to install almost 1000 particulate matter meters. The participants use this to measure the air quality throughout Groningen, Friesland and Drenthe. This gives them insight into the air quality around their home and in the rest of the region. All data can be found on the Meten Together data portal. Students use that information for research. RIVM is investigating how it can involve the sensor measurements - together with all other citizen measurements in the Netherlands - in the monitoring of air quality.
Special project
What is special about this project is that large-scale measurements are carried out in an area where there are few official measuring stations. The Northern Netherlands is on average one of the cleanest areas in the Netherlands. However, particulate matter can also be a problem here. Think, for example, of the German Easter fires in 2019, but wood stoves can also cause fine dust nuisance locally. Also special is that Onze air is the first major measurement campaign of 'CurioUs?' the first Meet-o-theek in the Netherlands. In the Meet-o-theek residents can borrow measuring equipment and get information about collecting information in and around their own home.
Role of Measuring Together RIVM
Our air uses the Sensor.Community method to measure particulate matter. The fine dust sensor in the measuring device is the SDS011 Nova Fitness to measure PM 2.5 and PM 10 . These measurements from Sensor.Community (also known as Luftdaten) are therefore also shown on the Samen Meten data portal . Together, the participants will also learn more about air quality in general and what you can and cannot do with the sensor data. The Together Measuring team also helps the people of the University of Groningen to answer questions from participants and to interpret the measurement data. The GGD Groningen and the Longfonds are also involved in the project as knowledge partners in the field of the health effects of particulate matter.
Extra sensorkastjes voor betere kalibratie
Op het Samen meten portaal passen we op de ruwe waarden van de SDS011 sensoren een experimentele kalibratie toe, die o.a. de waarden corrigeert bij zeer hoge luchtvochtigheid. Voor de kalibratie maken we gebruik van officiële meetdata. In de provincies Friesland, Groningen en Drenthe zijn alleen relatief weinig officiële meetpunten, in verhouding tot het enorme aantal Nova Fitness SDS011 sensoren. Daarom heeft Samen Meten binnen het project ook een aantal andere sensorkastjes ingezet. In deze kastjes is een Sensirion SPS30 ingebouwd, samen met communicatie-electronica, zie foto's van Wian Stienstra. De Sensirion SPS30 fijnstofsensor is minder gevoelig voor de luchtvochtigheid dan de Nova Fitness SDS011 en kan daarom verder helpen bij het duiden van de Onze Lucht data. De kastjes zijn met behulp van vrijwilligers uit de ‘Onze Lucht-community’ geplaatst, verspreid over de drie betrokken Provincies.
