Cloud service ThingSpeak for monitoring the surface layer of the atmosphere polluted by particulate matters

Abstract

The article describes the cloud service ThingSpeak as a tool for monitoring and estimates the atmospheric air pollution. The main components of open instruments of environmental monitoring were implemented via microcontroller development system – Teensy 3.2, sensor module (temperature, humidity, pressure) BME280, SenseAir S8 carbon dioxide sensor module, PMS3003 air pollution sensor, Wi-Fi module ESP-01 and online ThingSpeak platform for storing and processing data. The prototype of an open source software system is developed, which, due to its openness, integration capabilities, ease of design and informativeness, provides monitoring of the human respiratory zone in two districts of the city of Ternopil on the content of suspended particulate matter PM10 and PM2.5. The estimation of the influence of sources of pollution on the level of content suspended particulate matter in the atmospheric air was carried out with the help of multidimensional statistical methods, in particular using statistical procedure by principal component analysis, which allowed to process a large set of data and to obtain information on quantitative indicators and the nature of pollution. The analysis of particulate matter contents in the context of the cloud computing concept reflects the real-time monitoring metrics through the ThingSpeak services, which serves as a place not only for collecting, analyzing data, but also for discussing the results, thereby training students-biologists to monitor the quality of the surface layer of the atmosphere.