PLUME Dashboard: A free and open-source mobile air quality monitoring dashboard

The deployment of a mobile air quality monitoring laboratory requires advanced real-time instrument monitoring and data management software, which can be prohibitively expensive. In this work we present the PLUME Dashboard: a software package built in Python designed specifically for mobile air quality monitoring purposes. It aims to provide a free and open-source alternative to comparable commercial packages, thus reducing the barrier to entry of conducting such research. This paper outlines the development of the PLUME Dashboard and justifies the design choices that were made while also providing thorough documentation and explanation for how the software works. Functionality includes real-time data display, real-time peak identification, baseline subtraction, real-time air quality and self-sampling alerts (based on wind direction and vehicle speed), and post-processing tools such as peak identification and map merging with GPS data. The functionality of PLUME Dashboard is tested using real-world data collected in Toronto and Vancouver Canada.

Automated summary

This paper presents the PLUME Dashboard, a free and open-source software package designed for mobile air quality monitoring. It provides real-time data display, peak identification, baseline subtraction, and alerts based on wind direction and vehicle speed. The functionality of the software is demonstrated using real-world data collected in Canada.