DOI: 10.4231/vf0b-b644
title: 2020 Purdue FNR Ecological Sensors Class Air Quality Data

description: &lt;p&gt;These data are the results of a class project studying air quality. Students in the Purdue Forestry class Ecological Sensors &amp; Data (FNR49800-042). met in Spring 2020. During the spring semester, the COVID-19 lockdown forced students to return home. Students worked at home to deploy a network of air quality sensors using embedded microcontrollers and sensors that are part of the Particle Air Quality Monitoring Kit (https://docs.particle.io/quickstart/aqmk-project/).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Sensors included:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Shinyei PPD42 Dust Sensor&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;BME280 Temperature  and Humidity Sensor&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Seeed Studio Grove Air Quality Sensor v1.3 with metal-oxide sensor.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Students collected either indoor or outdoor data. Location of the data and whether the sensor was located indoors or outdoors is included in the metadata table. Note: locations of sensors are approximate to protect privacy of those with indoor air quality sensors. Sensor data are presented here in a raw, unedited form. Thus, data should subjected to quality control checks to identify data that are compromised by instrument error before use.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The time series data are included as a single CSV files. The columns in the CSV file are defined as follows:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;site_id: unique site identification for each sensor.&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Temperature: temperature in &deg;C.&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Pressure: barometric pressure in pascals.&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Humidity: percent humidity.&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Battery Voltage: voltage of the attached battery or other power source.&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;AQ Sensor Slope: An integer value corresponding to increased presence of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) detected by the metal oxide sensor. Values are semi-quantitative and range from 0 to 3.&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;AQ Sensor Raw: A raw value obtained from the metal oxide sensor in millivolts. Increasing values indicate higher levels of VOCs.&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;LPO: Low pulse occupancy. The amount of time during a reading that the dust sensor was detecting particulate matter.&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Dust Ratio: The LPO value standardized for the amount of time that data were collected.&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;dt: Date and time in Eastern Standard Time (GMT -5).&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Latitude: Latitude in decimal degrees. May be approximate to protect privacy.&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Longitude: Longitude in decimal degrees. May be approximate to protect privacy.&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Location: Indicates whether the sensor was deployed at an &quot;Indoor&quot; or &quot;Outdoor&quot; location.&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Stove: For &quot;Indoor&quot; locations, indicates what type of stove was present in the household (&quot;Gas&quot; or &quot;Electric&quot;). For outdoor locations, this variable was left blank.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
description: Air quality sensor data collected by Purdue Forestry & Natural Resources students using Arduino-compatible microcontrollers and sensors to detect volatile organic compounds and 2.5 µm particulates.