Mapping atmospheric aerosols with a citizen science network of smartphone spectropolarimeters

To assess the impact of atmospheric aerosols on health, climate, and air traffic, aerosol properties must be measured with fine spatial and temporal sampling. This can be achieved by actively involving citizens and the technology they own to form an atmospheric measurement network. We establish this...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Geophysical research letters Vol. 41; no. 20; pp. 7351 - 7358
Main Authors:	Snik, Frans, Rietjens, Jeroen H. H., Apituley, Arnoud, Volten, Hester, Mijling, Bas, Di Noia, Antonio, Heikamp, Stephanie, Heinsbroek, Ritse C., Hasekamp, Otto P., Smit, J. Martijn, Vonk, Jan, Stam, Daphne M., van Harten, Gerard, de Boer, Jozua, Keller, Christoph U.
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Washington Blackwell Publishing Ltd 28-10-2014 John Wiley & Sons, Inc
Subjects:	Accuracy Aerosol properties Aerosols Air pollution Air traffic Airborne particulates Alzheimer's disease Atmospheric aerosols citizen science Climate Daytime Imagery Information dissemination Locations (working) Mapping Mass Measurement Monitoring Optical thickness Photometry polarimetry Properties Properties (attributes) Sampling Satellite imagery Satellites Sky Smartphones Spaceborne remote sensing Structures Technology Traffic information Urban air Netherlands
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Summary:	To assess the impact of atmospheric aerosols on health, climate, and air traffic, aerosol properties must be measured with fine spatial and temporal sampling. This can be achieved by actively involving citizens and the technology they own to form an atmospheric measurement network. We establish this new measurement strategy by developing and deploying iSPEX, a low‐cost, mass‐producible optical add‐on for smartphones with a corresponding app. The aerosol optical thickness (AOT) maps derived from iSPEX spectropolarimetric measurements of the daytime cloud‐free sky by thousands of citizen scientists throughout the Netherlands are in good agreement with the spatial AOT structure derived from satellite imagery and temporal AOT variations derived from ground‐based precision photometry. These maps show structures at scales of kilometers that are typical for urban air pollution, indicating the potential of iSPEX to provide information about aerosol properties at locations and at times that are not covered by current monitoring efforts. Key Points The iSPEX add‐on turns smartphones into aerosol measurement devices Thousands of iSPEX measurements across the Netherlands form AOT maps The iSPEX AOT data match MODIS and AERONET data and have 2 km resolution
Bibliography:	ReadmeSupporting Text and Figures S1-S6 ark:/67375/WNG-LZ14QJTH-2 istex:652EC228A341A1086889984B1A524F822F1909E8 ArticleID:GRL52214 This article was corrected on 27 JAN 2014. See the end of the full text for details.
ISSN:	0094-8276 1944-8007
DOI:	10.1002/2014GL061462