Citizen Air Quality Sensor Network

Citizen air monitoring puts low-cost, Bluetooth- or Wi-Fi-connected sensors in the hands of residents, filling in the gaps between sparse official monitoring stations. This simulator visualizes what those sensors are actually measuring: a Gaussian dispersion plume of PM2.5 or NO2 drifting downwind from a source such as a road or stack. A grid of sensor poles samples the plume at their own positions and colors themselves by air-quality category in real time. Adjust wind speed, emission rate and sensor grid density to see how a denser hyperlocal network catches pollution hotspots that a single centralized station would miss entirely.