GAIA A20: Portable Air Quality Monitoring Station

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The A20 portable air quality station

The GAIA A20 sensor is a custom-designed sensor box with the following requirements:

Two redundant PM2.5 sensors (PMS 5003)
GPS/Beidu GNSS + Integrated GPS Antenna
Temperature and Humidity sensor (DHT11)
Internal data storage, allowing up to 4 weeks continuous monitoring (with a duty cycle of 30 samples every 5 minutes).
USB connection to retrieve the data storage
No Wifi required (for autonomous monitoring)
Battery powered - expect to run for at least 3 days without solar harvesting.
Battery charing via Solar panel or USB connector, allowing forever off-grid operation, provided there are a few sunny day every week.
Lightweight (can be hand-carried, for example attached to a handbag)

Specification Sheet

Included in the package are:

Optionally included in the package are:

The solar panel comes with a 5 meters (16 feet) water proof power cable (can be extended to 10 meters).

Note that it is recommended to keep the GAIA station away from direct rain

About the Air Quality Levels

AQI	Air Pollution Level	Health Implications	Cautionary Statement (for PM2.5)
0 - 50	Good	Air quality is considered satisfactory, and air pollution poses little or no risk	None
51 -100	Moderate	Air quality is acceptable; however, for some pollutants there may be a moderate health concern for a very small number of people who are unusually sensitive to air pollution.	Active children and adults, and people with respiratory disease, such as asthma, should limit prolonged outdoor exertion.
101-150	Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups	Members of sensitive groups may experience health effects. The general public is not likely to be affected.	Active children and adults, and people with respiratory disease, such as asthma, should limit prolonged outdoor exertion.
151-200	Unhealthy	Everyone may begin to experience health effects; members of sensitive groups may experience more serious health effects	Active children and adults, and people with respiratory disease, such as asthma, should avoid prolonged outdoor exertion; everyone else, especially children, should limit prolonged outdoor exertion
201-300	Very Unhealthy	Health warnings of emergency conditions. The entire population is more likely to be affected.	Active children and adults, and people with respiratory disease, such as asthma, should avoid all outdoor exertion; everyone else, especially children, should limit outdoor exertion.
300+	Hazardous	Health alert: everyone may experience more serious health effects	Everyone should avoid all outdoor exertion

To know more about Air Quality and Pollution, check the wikipedia Air Quality topic or the airnow guide to Air Quality and Your Health.

For very useful health advices of Beijing Doctor Richard Saint Cyr MD, check www.myhealthbeijing.com blog.