Mobile Air Quality Measurements on Light Rail and Helicopter

As "Internet of Things" technologies and communications continue to improve, real-time mobile measurements are becoming a relevant resource for surface and near-surface meteorological and air quality observations. In order to help better understand the spatial distribution of ozone and particulate matter in the Salt Lake Valley, two unique mobile platforms were utilized: a public transit light rail car and a television news helicopter. Our deploy-able systems are described in terms of instrumentation, data logging, and real-time cellular communications protocols. Each unit was designed to utilize power provided by the mobile platform and to require as little maintenance as possible.

Software was developed to communicate with the mobile units in real-time to collect data at routine intervals and made immediately available to users on web products with minimal latency. Light rail car real-time and archived observations of particulate matter and ozone can be found at http://meso1.chpc.utah.edu/mesotrax. The helicopter ozone data was collected as part of the 2015 Great Salt Lake Summer Ozone Study (GSLSO3S) and can be found with ozone data from other in-situ and mobile platforms at http://meso2.chpc.utah.edu/gslso3s. Examples of interesting case events are displayed using web products from both sources.