January 24, 2018—Bring your lunch and join us for a presentation by MIT Researchers Ben Crawford and Jesse Kroll in partnership with The Kohala Center. Poor air quality is the single largest environmental risk factor for premature death globally, but the lack of widespread observations has traditionally limited our understanding of air pollutant sources and impacts. In this talk we will describe a planned network of air quality monitors throughout Hawai‘i Island to measure the levels of volcanic air pollution with high spatial and temporal resolution. Such networks enable high-resolution monitoring for health and regulatory purposes; have potential for new insights about underlying atmospheric chemistry and physics; and are a means to engage the public in new ways.
We will give an overview of the sensor technology, initial findings from preliminary sensor measurements, and discuss our work to engage local communities and grow the network. The network will have 30-40 sensor nodes and be publicly accessible. We are looking for community input on sensor nodes sites and desired features.