A Mobile Air Pollution Monitoring Data Set

Abstract

Air pollution was observed in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada using monitors installed in a mobile platform from November 2005 up to November 2016. The dataset is an aggregation of several project specific monitoring days, which attempted to quantify air pollution spatial variation under varying conditions or in specific regions. Pollutants observed included carbon monoxide, nitric oxide, nitrogen dioxide, total nitrogen oxides, ground-level ozone, particulate matter concentrations for size cuts of 10 µm, 2.5 µm and 1 µm, and sulfur dioxide. Observations were collected over 114 days, which occurred in varying seasons and months. During sampling, the mobile platform travelled at an average speed of 27 km/h. The samples were collected as one-minute integrated samples and are prepared as line-segments, which include an offset for instrument response time. Sampling occurred on major freeways, highways, arterial and residential roads. This dataset is shared in hopes of supporting research on how to best utilize air pollution observations obtained with mobile air pollution platforms, which is a growing technique in the field of urban air pollution monitoring. We conclude with limitations in the data capture technique and recommendations for future mobile monitoring studies.