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Outdoor CO2 levels can go up to 700-800ppm in rural areas due to plants creating CO2 [1]. I was initially surprised it's that high but it was verified with refe
by ahaucnx 2y ago
Outdoor CO2 levels can go up to 700-800ppm in rural areas due to plants creating CO2 [1]. I was initially surprised it's that high but it was verified with reference instruments.
Why measure CO2 outdoors?
We are able to detect emission sources pretty well now with our outdoor monitors [2] that have the SenseAir S8 NDIR sensor built in. You can see some real data in the blog post I wrote about launching our global CO2 map [3].
So setting up a dense network of these sensors in a city would allow to measure if for example the introduction of low-emission zones or switching to electric buses etc. would work.
Another use case is to check for leakage in underground CO2 storage facilities.
All-in-all it's still experimental (to some extent) but we know the accuracy is there and we can see more and more use cases as outlined in my blog post. So we now work hard to get more and more of these sensors out there to get more data to identify additional use cases.
[1] https://www.airgradient.com/blog/performance-of-low-cost-co2-sensors-outdoors/ https://www.airgradient.com/blog/performance-of-low-cost-co2...
[2] https://www.airgradient.com/outdoor/ https://www.airgradient.com/outdoor/
[3] https://www.airgradient.com/blog/airgradient-global-co2-map/ https://www.airgradient.com/blog/airgradient-global-co2-map/
- Rebelgecko 2y agoWho do you calibrate these CO2 sensors in areas where the background level is so high?
- ahaucnx 2y agoNot sure what you mean with calibration here. Above is not so much about calibration but correlation. Basically comparing the monitors to the reference data.
- hyperknot 2y agoI think he meant How?, meaning normally a calibration is placing indoor monitors outdoors for 20 mins.
- avianlyric 2y agoIf you’re using reference grade instruments, I would assume they’re calibrated in labs using well controlled environments. I.e. put sensor in vacuum chamber, remove all gases, then introduce know amount of gases to produce a known target environment. Given their reference instruments, I assume they’re also capable of maintaining their calibration for a long period of known time, before they need to be re-calibrated. They would never rely on something as inaccurate as “20 mins outdoors” to calibrate themselves.
- Rebelgecko 2y agoSorry, should've been "how". My understanding is that the optical sensors work by recalibrating every week or so, assuming that the lowest CO2 level they've seen is equivalent to the baseline "outdoor" ppm that was set in the factory (which can be adjusted over time to account for climate change). If the sensors are in an environment where the CO2 is always elevated, how do you keep it properly calibrated (eg if the CO2 never goes under 700ppm, how do you stop it from recalibrating so that it returns "400" when it should actually return "700") I know you can just turn calibration off but won't the sensors' accuracy decrease over time?
- darby_nine 2y agoSurely this refers to decomposition and not living plants. Your link doesn't appear to finger plants as the culprit at all.
- avianlyric 2y agoPlants produce CO2 as well, photosynthesis is only used to produce sugars, normal respiration (I.e. sugars + O2 = energy + CO2), is used by plants to consume those sugars. Only a plant cells containing chlorophyll and exposed to sunlight will photosynthesise. Notably at night there isn’t much sunlight, so normal respiration dominates a plants gas conversion processes, and results in them producing net CO2. Based on the graphs in the blog post, I assume GP is placing the CO2 production on plants because it the CO2 levels peak at night, then return to normal every morning.
- mschuster91 2y agoYep, I've noticed this as well with my cannabis grow tent. At an 18/6 lighting schedule, it's noticeable that CO2 grows up to 800ppm in the tent at the end of the fake-night cycle.
- neilv 2y ago> Outdoor CO2 levels can go up to 700-800ppm in rural areas due to plants creating CO2 [1]. We need to get those rural voters more oxygen, STAT!
- nroets 2y agoEm, do you know that plants are actually a net source of oxygen ? And a sink of CO2 ?
- tedivm 2y agoNet, sure, but it's actually really really complex when you look at point in time numbers. > Carbon dioxide is not released during photosynthesis, but small amounts of that gas are emitted both day and night as a by-product of cellular respiration. It is worth noting that the majority of plants absorb carbon dioxide during the day for photosynthesis and do so in greater amounts than they release for cellular respiration. So depending on the time plants could easily be pushing out more CO2 than they are pulling it at that time, which could result in CO2 concentrations increasing during that time.
- Projectiboga 2y agoTime dependent, plants give off O2 in the evening. The co2 is released by the micro organisms which are bacterial and fungal and breathe O2 just like us.
- stavros 2y agoPlants are overall a sink of CO2, as it goes into building their mass.
- aaron695 2y ago[dead]
- specto 2y agoIt seems like ozone is the missing piece. The only ones that measure outdoor ozone are governments, and the numbers keep increasing.
- aaron695 2y ago[dead]