Monterey Bay Air Resources District brings real-time, local air quality data to 20+ municipalities in California

Intensifying wildfires prompt
air quality concerns across the North Central Coast Air Basin

The Monterey Bay Air Resources District (MBARD) is responsible for managing air quality in the North Central Coast Air Basin (NCCAB), which comprises the counties of Monterey, San Benito, and Santa Cruz. The NCCAB covers an area of more than 5,100 square miles, and while the region is blessed with relatively clean air, there are still a number of days each year when air pollution levels violate the state of California’s standards for ozone and particulate matter. Emissions from vehicles, businesses, and industrial activities combine with climate and topography in the region to create the air pollution that MBARD is tasked with managing. 

Despite being in attainment for both state (CAAQS) and federal (NAAQS) standards for particulate matter (PM2.5) and ozone, MBARD noticed an increasing level of concern from their stakeholders about air quality — particularly in the context of the extreme wildfires that have become commonplace in California. 

We get a lot of calls from concerned citizens that want better air quality data during these wildfire events. About five years ago when we had the Soberanes Fire here in the Big Sur area, the fires burned from July through October. It impacted air quality across the entire region for months. We had smoke impacts in just about every part of the region — and in subsequent years we have had the same experience, with smoke impacting air quality in the region on an annual basis."

— David Frisbey, Planning and Air Monitoring Manager

MBARD has eight reference-grade monitoring stations in their jurisdiction — only six of which measure PM2.5, the air pollutant of highest concern during wildfire events. The district found that when wildfire season came around, this network simply could not provide air quality data of sufficient spatial or temporal granularity to meet their stakeholders’ needs for real-time, local air quality information.

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We wanted a network that would get real-time data out to the public immediately and show air quality changes in real-time — which we had been unable to do with our network of reference-grade equipment alone."

— William Chevalier, Supervising Air Monitoring Specialist

Traditionally, the District would deploy a network of EBAMs during extreme air quality events, but they found that this approach was a significant drain on the District’s resources. 

During wildlife events, our air monitoring staff would be scrambling to put out EBAMs — we have our own set, and we borrow some from the state of California — but there is a lot of maintenance and effort associated with operating a network of EBAMs. First, you have to find sites, which need to have line power available. They are bulky and heavy, so there is fatigue on staff when it comes to installing and maintaining the equipment. The EBAMs use a lot of filter tape, and there need to be flow checks every week — there is a lot of maintenance and effort required to operate these networks.”

— David Frisbey, Planning and Air Monitoring Manager

MBARD realized that the EBAM network was not a sustainable solution for their wildfire-related air monitoring needs — and decided to look to air quality sensors as an alternative. 

Air quality districts are not at this point equipped to deal with some of the challenges posed by wildfires. We have found ourselves needing to pivot and make adjustments to the extent that we're now fulfilling different functions than were ever envisioned when AQMDs were created. It’s been a challenging time, but also a time full of opportunities."

— Richard Stedman, Air Pollution Control Officer

MBARD proposed the idea of a dense network of air quality sensors to their Board of Directors, an 11-member board appointed from the elected governing bodies of the local jurisdictions. The Board liked the concept of a sensor network and asked the MBARD team to investigate the viability of building out a sensor network that would provide the real-time, granular data that the public needed during wildfires and other extreme air quality events. 

MBARD searches for a scalable
air quality sensing solution

MBARD had experimented with several sensor technologies in the past — primarily to field air quality concerns from citizens in specific areas — but they found that despite their low cost, these sensors quickly became very burdensome to operate and maintain. 

Other sensors we had tried were cheap — on the order of several hundred dollars — but we had to spend so much time getting them to work for our desired use cases that the true cost of operating the network was much higher. We had to develop a battery system to adapt to each of the sensors we installed, and we had difficulty finding the reliable WiFi connection these sensors required — these two complications alone led to our staff spending dozens of hours setting up and operating the network.” 

— David Frisbey, Planning and Air Monitoring Manager

The difficulties associated with using sensors that do not offer a scalable cloud infrastructure for data management became especially apparent when they went to analyze the data collected by consumer air quality sensors. 

The difficulty of relying on WiFI became especially clear when we had to collect all of the data on SD cards. When we got back to the office, the data was just a mess. It took a lot of effort to refine the data to a form we wanted it to be in. That was really challenging, and I realized at that time that these consumer-oriented sensors were not going to work for remote monitoring.”

— David Frisbey, Planning and Air Monitoring Manager

It became clear to the MBARD team that they needed to find a sensor that could provide high-resolution air quality data at scale — without requiring a massive investment of the air monitoring staff’s time or resources. 

David first heard about Clarity at a conference, where he saw a Clarity Node-S on display and was impressed with the concept of a solar-powered, self-sufficient air quality sensor that could be used in remote locations. After the conference, David had his air monitoring staff look into Clarity’s solution. 

I was impressed with the ease of use offered by Clarity sensors, and I didn't know of any other sensor that could fit our needs. We looked at the results of SCAQMD’s evaluation testing, and it seemed to us that Clarity had consistent enough data to serve our needs for the sensor network. We collocated a sensor with a BAM in the San Lorenzo Valley and found that we had pretty good comparative data, so we decided to work with Clarity to build out a sensor network.”

— David Frisbey, Planning and Air Monitoring Manager

David and his colleague William Chevalier — a Supervising Air Monitoring Specialist with MBARD — took the lead on building out the Clarity network, beginning by installing a Clarity Node-S in each of the 21 municipalities located in the NCCAB. Chevalier found that compared with other sensors they had used in the past, the Node-S made site selection and installation a breeze. 

We were excited when we saw what Clarity was offering — it works very nicely for our objectives with the wildfire air monitoring network. We liked that Clarity’s sensors are very quick to install and very easy to use, thanks to the native solar panel and cellular antenna. Not having to use somebody else's WiFI in a remote location is great — that had been a major issue for us with several projects.”

— William Chevalier, Supervising Air Monitoring Specialist

Clarity’s team of air quality sensor experts supported MBARD with advice and technical support as they deployed a network of Node-S devices across their district — with most of the sensors being sited at schools. 

It's great that Clarity has staff that keeps an eye on the monitors and will contact us if needed — we haven't run into any technical issues, but we have worked with the support team quite a bit and it has been a good experience. They have been very responsive."

— William Chevalier, Supervising Air Monitoring Specialist

Given MBARD’s focus on communicating real-time air quality information during wildfire events, the MBARD team was pleased to know that Clarity had developed a calibration model specifically for the 2021 wildfire season in the Western United States — and that they could easily apply this model across all of the sensors in their network, free of charge, as part of the Remote Calibration component of Clarity’s Sensing-as-a-Service model. 

The data from our network of Clarity sensors is much more in line with the regulatory monitors than data we have received from other sensors in the past."

— William Chevalier, Supervising Air Monitoring Specialist

The MBARD team can pull reports and analyze both raw and calibrated data from their air sensor network through the Clarity Dashboard, which provides network administrators with a powerful interface to access all of their real-time and historical air quality data, which is stored in the Clarity Cloud. 

We are very happy with the Dashboard — it makes it very easy to access and review data from our network."

— William Chevalier, Supervising Air Monitoring Specialist

Since implementing the network of Clarity sensors, MBARD has begun sharing data from the network on their Wildfire Smoke Information and Resources web page. Clarity’s OpenMap provides an easy way to share both PM2.5 NowCast AQI and 24-hour mean AQI with the public. 

In addition to the Dashboard and OpenMap, MBARD can also access the data from their network via API, providing the flexibility to build out custom integrations and report data from their network with an even higher degree of granularity. They have worked with Esri to bring the data from their Clarity network into ArcGIS using their ArcGIS Data Interoperability product, as covered by Esri in this blog. 

MBARD brings local, real-time air quality data to >750K citizens across 21 municipalities 

With Clarity’s Sensing-as-a-Service solution, MBARD was able to more than triple the number of air quality measurement points available to its stakeholders — all while saving staff time and minimizing the overhead associated with managing a network of air quality measurement instrumentation. 

We're going from six particulate matter monitors to more than 20 — with one placed in each local municipality — so we expect to have more granularity in looking at how smoke impacts people across our three-county jurisdiction. We don’t have a lot of staff time to spend setting up or fine-tuning this equipment — Clarity’s managed service model allows us to multiply the number of sensors in our network with minimal additional overhead on our end. "

— Richard Stedman, Air Pollution Control Officer

In addition to providing a valuable source of real-time information during wildfires and other extreme air pollution events, MBARD has been able to leverage their network of air quality sensors for a range of additional use cases. 

Because it does not rely on a hardwired power source or WiFi connectivity, the Node-S can be installed in virtually any environment — including remote sites such as the San Lorenzo Valley. 
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With the sensors, we have fewer resources dedicated to maintaining equipment in remote locations, which is a real benefit in terms of cost and effort on our air monitoring staff. For example, every year we put up seasonal air monitoring stations in the San Lorenzo Valley — a narrow, steep, and remote valley with a wintertime inversion layer and high levels of PM2.5 from wood-burning stoves and fireplaces. Traditionally we have installed EBAMs throughout the valley to monitor the impacts of those trends — but siting them in a remote location was not easy. This year, we are going to collocate four Clarity sensors with EBAMs in the San Lorenzo Valley, and if it turns out that they track well with the EBAMs, we will replace the EBAMS with Clarity sensors year-round."

— David Frisbey, Planning and Air Monitoring Manager

This siting flexibility also means that MBARD can place the sensors in priority areas like disadvantaged communities without having to deal with the permitting and other logistical complexities that typically come with siting a reference-grade air quality monitor. 

We have adapted the sensor network to serve as a Community Air Protection Program (CAPP). As we install sensors throughout the district, we are focusing on disadvantaged communities and low-income areas, which helps us meet the obligations we have under our CAPP grant from the California Air Resources Board (CARB).”

— David Frisbey, Planning and Air Monitoring Manager

The granularity of the data provided by the Clarity network has also allowed MBARD to initiate studies that look at air pollution’s impacts in new ways. They are currently working with the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) to look at sub-24-hour levels of PM2.5 exposure and determine what that means from a health perspective. 

Ultimately what people want to know is if they are safe. With this sensor network, we're going to be able to provide people the data they need to make good decisions for their health when there is wildfire smoke."

— David Frisbey, Planning and Air Monitoring Manager

While MBARD’s sensor network was originally envisioned as a solution for wildfire smoke monitoring, the MBARD team is already finding that the sensors open up a wide range of new possibilities for the district and sees them as a key tool for the district’s work protecting public and environmental health moving forward. 

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There are a lot of opportunities to employ this new sensor technology — it’s helping us provide a robust smoke monitoring network during wildfire season, pinpoint problematic air pollution sources within our district, and better serve communities that have traditionally not had access to air quality data under the regulatory model.

It’s a paradigm shift — it means no longer relying solely on FRM and FEM equipment, but leveraging this existing equipment to collocate sensors and ensure that they are doing a good job of representing conditions on the ground, which we believe Clarity does. We see an exciting future for using low-cost sensors and we want to get out in front of this trend, because if we're playing catch-up then we have already lost.” 

— Richard Stedman, Air Pollution Control Officer

To learn more about MBARD and their work protecting public and environmental health while balancing economic and air quality considerations, visit the Monterey Bay Air Resources District website here.