In the Purple Air air-quality map on Friday, September 11, 2020, most parts of the west coast are shown with dangerous levels of pollution from wildfire smoke.
Screenshots
As record fires wreak havoc in the western United States, they are releasing large amounts of smoke and ash into the atmosphere, adding to the region’s health woes.
To find out where and when it is safe to go out, residents turn to air quality apps and web sites such as Ernet, PurpleAir and IQR. They are also installing air quality sensors created by these and other groups to monitor pollution levels on their own properties, along with air purifiers to keep their homes and offices afloat.
On September 9, 2020, the sky over Oakland and San Francisco turned a strange dark orange from smoke, with nearly 600,000 people visiting the Purple Air air quality map in a single day, according to Google Analytics data, the company shared with CNBC. Most of those visitors were from California. Site visits to Reg Reagan and Washington in Washington began on the 9th and 10th, as well as Reg Rego preparing to evacuate approximately 500,000 people.
“We’re happy to be able to help people understand where the smoke is, where it travels from, and where they go to get clean air. But it’s a very strange feeling when your business is done,” Purple CEO Adrian Diabwad told CNBC. Is doing well in the midst of such tragedies. “
PurpleAir has sold 1,000 sensors in recent weeks
Founded in 2015, PurpleAir maps it with data that flows from sensors the company makes at its Draper, Utah, headquarters, priced from 199 199 to 9 279.
The company only employs 12 full-time employees but wants to double that this season and currently has about 9,000 sensors installed worldwide, up from 6,000 at this time last year. About 1,000 sensors were sold in the last few weeks as lightning storms started the fire season in California.
The map is free and has no ads, and provides a simple color-coded key that shows how bad the air is outside. Green dot means it is mostly clean. Orange means that sensitivity groups will occur after 24 hours, while red means that everyone can be affected. The worst color, a dark purple-maroon, warns “If they are left open for more than 24 hours it warns of the health of the state of emergency. The whole population is likely to be affected.” During the worst days of the 2020 fire season, such as September 11, most of the west coast is covered with purple-maroon dots.
Vehicles with international 80s are seen as LNU. Flames of the Lighting Complex fire appear on both sides of the outskirts of Wakaville, California, USA on August 19, 2020.
Stephen Lum | Reuters
Readings on the Purple Map The ERNAV operated by federal agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency and NASA, may appear to exceed the standards at the site.
Diabwad explained why: “Our sensors, essentially, have a laser beam glowing and when particles float or suck from that beam of light, they calculate and evaluate the reflections. More and more effectively bright, More particles. The density sensor assumes that depending on what is being measured it can turn off a bit, for example wood smoke versus gravel dust, “
Wood smoke particles typically have a density of 1.5 grams per cubic centimeter, and gravel dust particles typically have a density of 2.8 grams per cubic centimeter, he noted.
For now, Purple Air aims to show people where the intensity of air pollution usually worsens or improves every few minutes, and whether the air is dangerous or hygienic.
“We don’t always have to share hair – whether it’s purple or very purple, we know the severity of the pollution is bad,” Diabwad said. “Other companies try to hide their data, so you have to pay to log in to see it. Our philosophy is openness.”
Other air quality companies are working on more precise measurements of the parts we breathe.
The startup, funded by Li Klima, Schmidt Family Foundation, Emerson Environment Lactive and other environmental investors, is working on sensors that can measure ozone-like particles and greenhouse gases, which are hyperlocal by controllers and scientists. And uses it. , Mainly.
The startup’s CEO and founder, David Herzl, said its systems work with a combination of technologies, including laser-based and electrochemical sensors and machine learning software, all integrated into a one-of-a-kind lab. The systems are adequate for the back of a passenger vehicle, which can move around any city that needs to be closely monitored for new threats to the environment. They can also generate readings on how air quality varies from one end of a city block to the other.
The start-up is selling its data and systems to regulatory agencies such as the Bay Area Air Quality Management District in California. They use Eclima data to plan emissions reduction and enforcement against pollutants. Herzl said the company is monitoring air quality in an area that includes about 10 million residents, mostly in California, some in New York. She expects that coverage to double in the next six months.
Swiss air quality company IQR, which also runs an aerial visual application, sees spikes in website visits and sales of air filtration systems, while important environmental events such as a fire in the western states in 2019 or an Australian wildfire in 2019, which killed 4,000 people. Square miles of land, 34 people were killed, and billions of animals were driven from their habitats.
For example, Glory Dolphin Hams, CEO of IQR for North America, told CNBC that the company gained more than 10 million new visitors to its air quality map in the state of California between August 17 and September 10, so that the planted area burned in developed quantities. . Over the same period, new visitors to the air quality maps for the cities of Reg Regan and Washington Washington on IQR.com grew by more than 18,000% and 38,000%, respectively.
The company has more than 80,000 sensors that measure air quality worldwide, the majority in North America today, and some at US embassies around the world.
Glory Dolphin Hams (CEO) IQAR North America, Inc.
IQ Air Inc.
While it is clear that people should avoid going outside when the sky turns black and orange from smoking, air quality problems and health hazards remain even when the sky appears normal, Hems noted.
“We often allow for air quality. You will see blue skies and assume that you can also breathe clean air. Tragic events like wildlife can further the discussion about air quality. But we have to improve air quality. “Visible and a topic of discussion throughout the year,” he said.
As the company sells air purification systems, not just sensors, some of its focus has shifted to measuring air quality and improving ventilation in more schools, hospitals and industrial settings in 2020.
According to Amy Westerwelt, an environmental journalist at Drilled, the creator of the Climate Change Podcast, the increase in free, airline air quality mapping is a major shift in consumer awareness of air pollution. Westerwelt says coal, manufacturing and other industries lobbied the government hard to treat air emissions data like a trade secret. But with sophisticated enough sensors and data from consumers and open-source groups, the industry can’t hide its impact on the air we breathe forever.
“I think these‘ airpocalyps ’could end environmental degradation,” Westerwelt said. “When there is a fire in the sky you can’t give a message of a way out of it and no one can leave the house.”
Clock: Wildfires on the West Coast continue with at least 15 deaths
.
