What would cause an elevated reading?

Just got an air monitor near my house, and I’m getting addicted to seeing our general area. An obvious outlier exists near me, though. Most sensors all agree, but there is one that is reading 2000+ on a regular basis. Thoughts on what is causing that? Anything I can or should do to help out?

Real-Time Air Quality Map | PurpleAir is the area I’m looking at. Sensor is “Bainbridge - Rotary Park.” I have not stopped by to inspect the sensor, as it isn’t mine. I can probably still do so, if that would help.

-josh

Hi @Josh_Berry

The elevated levels reported by this sensor are probably due to some sort of debris inside the device itself. Usually, this is some sort of bug, like a spider. This device has two channels that average their readings, which is what is displayed on the map. In this case, I have “downgraded” the channel that has debris in it so that only the other channel displays on the map. This should cause it to have a more accurate reading.

We will reach out to the owner of the sensor and request that they perform maintenance to fix this issue.

Hope this answers your question!

1 Like

Glad to know my intuition is correct on this one. I literally guessed to my wife that it was probably a spider. I have yet to stop by that park to see if I can spot the sensor.

Thanks for answering. Happy to be contributing with my sensor data, too!

Hope all is well! -josh

1 Like