野火imios
By Adele Peters
阿黛尔·彼得斯(Adele Peters)
Over the last 12 days, wildfires have burned more than 1.2 million acres of land in California, an area collectively larger than Delaware. As the smoke pours into cities like San Francisco, making the air dangerous to breathe, many people aren’t turning to government sites to check the air quality, but to PurpleAir, a tiny startup that maps air quality using sensors in backyards.
在过去的12天中，山火烧毁了加利福尼亚州超过120万英亩的土地，面积总计超过特拉华州。 随着烟雾涌入旧金山等城市，使空气呼吸变得危险，许多人并没有转向政府部门检查空气质量，而是转向了PurpleAir一家小型公司，该公司使用后院的传感器绘制空气质量。
Even in large cities, the government typically has only a handful of EPA-certified air quality monitors and updates the readings at most every hour with an hourly average. But the level of pollution can be different even inside the same neighborhood, and can quickly change. The PurpleAir map, which is dotted with data from dozens of devices in San Francisco, sometimes shows areas of clean air immediately adjacent to places where smoke is trapped.
即使在大城市中，政府通常也只有少数几个经过EPA认证的空气质量监测仪，并且每小时最多每小时更新一次读数，并且每小时平均一次 。 但是，即使在同一社区内，污染程度也可能不同，并且可以Swift变化。 PurpleAir地图上散布着来自旧金山数十个设备的数据，有时会显示紧邻被困烟尘的地方的干净空气区域。
“You could say, well, ‘let’s go one block that way, and we might get out of the smoke,’” says PurpleAir founder Adrian Dybwad. “You can tell that if you’re dealing with real-time data. If you’re looking at averages, you might get there and find that it’s changed.”
PurpleAir创始人Adrian Dybwad说：“你可以说，'那样走一个街区，我们可能会烟消云散。' “您可以告诉您是否正在处理实时数据。 如果您正在查看平均值，您可能会到达那里并发现它已经改变。”
Dybwad, based in Salt Lake City, started the company as a side project in 2015 because he wanted to better understand the pollution in his own neighborhood, where he could see dust blowing from a gravel mine nearly every day. He experimented with various sensors and settled on a type that uses lasers to measure particles in the air. The light reflects off the particles and the sensors use that reflection to estimate the size and number of particles. He built monitors that combine the sensors with wi-fi to share the data, and initially gave them away, but began selling them as the demand grew. The company, which now has 10 employees, has distributed 1,500 indoor sensors and 7,000 outdoor sensors so far.
总部位于盐湖城的Dybwad于2015年将公司作为附属项目成立，因为他想更好地了解自己所在社区的污染，在那里他几乎每天都可以看到碎石矿山上扬起的灰尘。 他尝试了各种传感器，并决定使用激光来测量空气中的微粒。 光从粒子反射，传感器使用该反射来估计粒子的大小和数量。 他制造了将传感器与wi-fi结合在一起的显示器，以共享数据，最初是将其分发出去的，但随着需求的增长，他们开始出售它们。 该公司目前拥有10名员工，到目前为止已分发了1,500个室内传感器和7,000个室外传感器。
The launch of the startup coincided with the growth of megafires in California, where wildfires happen naturally, but climate change has dramatically increased their scale and destruction. In the fall of 2015, a major fire in the North Bay destroyed nearly 2,000 buildings, followed by another in 2017 that destroyed 5,600 buildings, and a third major fire in 2018 that burned 459,000 acres. In 2018, the Camp Fire destroyed the town of Paradise and blanketed the Bay Area in smoke for days. Two of the fires currently burning are the second and third-largest fires in the state’s recorded history. Major wildfires are also burning in Colorado. As the fires have grown this month, PurpleAir has seen roughly a 1000% increase in traffic to its map.
这家初创公司的推出与加利福尼亚州发生大火的大火相吻合，那里自然发生了野火，但气候变化极大地扩大了大火的规模和破坏力。 2015年秋天，北湾发生了一场大火，摧毁了近2,000座建筑物，2017年又发生了另一起大火，摧毁了5,600座建筑物，2018年发生了第三次大火，烧毁了459,000英亩。 在2018年，营火摧毁了天堂镇，并在烟雾笼罩了几天的海湾地区。 当前燃烧的大火中有两个是该州记录的历史上的第二大和第三大火灾。 科罗拉多州也发生了大火。 随着本月大火的增加，PurpleAir的地图流量大约增加了1000％。
Each fire poses an immediate threat to life and property; in California, more than 100,000 people have been forced to leave their homes in the current fires, and seven people have died. But the smoke also causes health problems, including heart and lung issues (it may also worsen COVID-19.) Knowing when it’s relatively safe to go outside is key, but the official tools aren’t adequate.
每场大火都对生命和财产构成直接威胁； 在加利福尼亚，在目前的大火中，已有超过100,000人被迫离开家园，另有7人死亡。 但是烟雾还会引起健康问题，包括心脏和肺部问题(可能还会使COVID-19恶化)。知道何时相对安全出门是关键，但是官方工具还不够。
PurpleAir’s data differs from the official air quality readings. One recent study of low-cost air quality monitors, including the PurpleAir, found that the readings were consistent and could be reliable, but they were also higher than the monitors used by the government during a wildfire. That’s because the EPA uses weight, rather than the number of particles, to come up with a number for the air quality index, and wood smoke particles are lighter weight than something like gravel dust. Dybwad explains that historically, the air quality was measured by weighing a filter before and after it was exposed to polluted air. Now, he says, he’s trying to work within an outdated system. “We’re trying to take a new signal from a new sensor and we’re trying to put noise on it — trying to make a DVD look like a VHS video,” he says.
PurpleAir的数据不同于官方的空气质量读数。 最近对包括PurpleAir在内的低成本空气质量监测仪的一项研究发现，读数是一致的并且可能是可靠的，但也高于政府在野火期间使用的监测仪。 这是因为EPA使用的是重量而不是颗粒的数量来得出空气质量指数的数字，并且木烟颗粒的重量比砾石粉等的重量更轻。 Dybwad解释说，从历史上看，空气质量是通过将过滤器暴露在污染的空气之前和之后称重来测量的。 他说，现在，他正在尝试在一个过时的系统中工作。 他说：“我们正在尝试从新传感器中获取新信号，并试图在其上施加噪音-试图使DVD看起来像VHS视频。”
The PurpleAir map includes the option to convert the readings using two formulas that bring the numbers closer in line to the EPA’s. Dybwad says that he also thinks the EPA may come up with a new scale based on the effects of a certain number of particles of a certain size. “The question now is, are 1,000 particles of woodsmoke less harmful than 1,000 particles of the same size of gravel dust? We’ll probably find the answer is no.”
PurpleAir地图包含使用两个公式转换读数的选项，该公式使数字更接近EPA。 Dybwad说，他还认为EPA可能会根据一定数量的一定大小颗粒的影响提出新的规模。 “现在的问题是，与相同大小的砾石粉尘中的1,000颗烟尘相比，1,000粒木烟是否危害更小？ 我们可能会找到答案是否定的。”
Now, the government is also beginning to incorporate PurpleAir data into an experimental new Fire and Smoke Map that also includes data from the official monitors. Unfortunately, it still can’t be viewed in real time. But using data from low-cost sensor networks like this may be the best way for the government to give citizens more accurate data during wildfires. Dybwad explains that the official government air quality monitors have to be very expensive because they’re used to monitor the effects of regulation over time, and the data has to hold up in court. They weren’t intended to monitor the air during wildfires, and a different solution is needed.
现在，政府也开始将PurpleAir数据整合到实验性的新版《 火灾与烟雾地图》中 ，其中还包括来自官方监控器的数据。 不幸的是，它仍然不能实时查看。 但是，使用像这样的低成本传感器网络中的数据可能是政府在野火期间向市民提供更准确数据的最佳方法。 Dybwad解释说，政府官方的空气质量监测仪必须非常昂贵，因为它们被用来随时间监测法规的效果，并且数据必须在法庭上保存。 它们并不是要在野火期间监视空气，因此需要其他解决方案。
In many cities, that will also need to involve installing monitors in poorer neighborhoods; in Los Angeles, for example, the nonprofit Coalition for Clean Air is giving PurpleAir monitors away to community members. “I think the only sustainable way of managing on a large scale is where the community gets involved in hosting and running sensors like this,” he says.
在许多城市，这还需要在较贫困的社区中安装显示器。 例如，在洛杉矶，非营利组织“清洁空气联盟”正在将PurpleAir显示器送给社区成员。 他说：“我认为，大规模管理的唯一可持续方法是社区参与托管和运行这样的传感器。”
野火imios
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