monitor

About monitor

Posts by :

Webinar -Air Quality During COVID

Topic: Air Quality During COVID

By: Dr. Trina Mackie of Touro University


Time: Nov 4, 2020 05:30 – 06:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada) with Q&A session afterward

How does the smoke affect our health
How it changes our risk from COVID
How to read the maps and monitors
How to keep yourself safe
Other actions to take

 
Meeting ID: 841 1156 1601
Passcode: 150779
 

One tap mobile
+16699006833,,84111561601#,,,,,,0#,,150779# US (San Jose)
+14086380968,,84111561601#,,,,,,0#,,150779# US (San Jose)

Dial by your location
        +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
        +1 408 638 0968 US (San Jose)
        +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
        +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
        +1 646 876 9923 US (New York)
        +1 301 715 8592 US (Germantown)
        +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
Meeting ID: 841 1156 1601
Passcode: 150779
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kCZVpHS8B

Earn Community Service Volunteer Hours with Vallejo Citizen Air Monitoring Network

Opportunity #1:

Build public speaking skills, get letters of recommendation, and be a part of making Vallejo’s environment safer and healthier.  Volunteers will get training on local air quality issues and their health impacts.  They will learn about basic video composition and create video presentations to disseminate to peers and social networks. Volunteers will be involved in information outreach and dissemination in virtual formats.  

The hours and start date are flexible.  The expectation is roughly 1-2 hours each week for 2-4 months.

Opportunity #2:

Gain technical training and hands-on experience with air quality monitor installation.  Configure WiFi adaptors and connect routers.  Be a part of a community driven effort to improve the air and the environment in Vallejo.  Get letters of recommendation, leadership development, and enhance your professional profile.

 

The hours and start date are flexible.  The expectation would be for a commitment of 6 months, averaging 5 hours a month

 

Welcome

Welcome

Welcome to the Vallejo Citizen Air Monitoring Network (VCAMN).  We are a group of Vallejo residents working to make the air and environment better for all here in our community.  We have monthly meetings open to all, and we welcome a diverse participation from all Vallejo residents including the voices of our youth. We have worked to build a network of air monitors in Vallejo to help us know when there is unsafe air around us, and to help us learn about potential problems and advocate for change to make our air and our health better.

California Air Resources Board Community Air Grants Project:

California Air Resources Board Community Air Grants Project: This project has five aims. The first aim is to increase understanding of community needs around air quality and health. Community outreach is a central part of this aim. The second aim is to gather community feedback on challenges to understanding air pollution and environmental issues. Third is to empower communities within Vallejo to participate in decisions to fight air pollution and improve air quality. Fourth is to encourage learning about how and “green infrastructure” can provide solutions. Green infrastructure includes things like how we use local resources to support healthy air and other environmental improvements. Finally, the fifth aim is to forge alliances with sister groups to ready the community for future work. And given the diversity of the communities in Vallejo, we believe progress on these goals must include as many diverse voices as possible to be part of the dialogue and solutions to go forward successfully. As such, inclusivity is a foundation to all of our project goals.

Sensor Technology – Handheld XRF: How it works

XRF is an acronym for x-ray fluorescence, a process whereby electrons are displaced from their atomic orbital positions, releasing a burst of energy that is characteristic of a specific element. This release of energy is then registered by the detector in then XRF instrument, which in turn categorizes the energies by element.

 

https://www.bruker.com/products/x-ray-diffraction-and-elemental-analysis/handheld-xrf/how-xrf-works.html

Air District-operated monitor – How-to

The relatively poor air quality over the past week or two is mostly due to recent meteorology conditions. The persistent high pressure over California right now leads to cooler temperatures, a low inversion layer, light winds (no storms), and poor vertical mixing. This meteorology pattern traps our area’s emissions within the area and closer to the ground, leading to higher measured concentrations. Hopefully this will ease up a bit later this week.

I have passed along the information that the AirNow site is listing “Fairfield” on the Current AQI and AQI Loop of the “NowCast” values (as in the screenshot below). However, even though the header says Fairfield, the measured AQI listed on the AirNow page is not specific to any given monitor. The map and current AQI listed is the highest AQI measured for that hour at any site in the reporting zone for the zip code that is entered. There are five reporting zones in the Bay Area – and they are shown on the map here: http://www.baaqmd.gov/about-air-quality/current-air-quality and described here http://www.sparetheair.org/stay-informed/todays-air-quality/reporting-zones. Vallejo is in the Northern Zone, so for our AQI forecasts and AirNow current AQI, it is reflecting the maximum AQI in that whole area for a given day or hour.

I think a better site to track real-time measured concentrations at a specific Air District-operated monitor is the query page for the CARB AQMIS database located at https://www.arb.ca.gov/aqmis2/aqdselect.php. You can select filters to look at PM2.5 daily averages and our area by selecting the Air Basin to be “San Francisco Bay Area”. The “Daily Data” tab shows the 24-hour averages at each site for a week (week at a glance) or the max 24-hour value for each day in the whole Bay Area for the entire year (year at a glance). The “Hourly Data” tab gives a table of hourly values for the given day at each site.

Load More