On October 10, the day after massive wildfires began in Northern California and a thick haze of smoke spread around the region, two Google Street View cars began driving on local roads. On top of each car, a mobile air-quality system sucked in outdoor air and analyzed the level of pollution–at times, the worst air quality on record for the Bay Area.
The cars can also respond to changing conditions. For four days, the team designed a specific route to drive based on the direction of the wind, and to capture specific impacts of the smoke. On two days, the cars drove near the fires–in areas where it was safe to drive, and where they wouldn’t interfere with fire crews or other emergency responders–noting how rapidly pollution levels changed even over distances as short as one mile.
On a drive up Highway 101 to the town of Sebastopol, for example, on October 10, the pollution varied between moderate and unhealthy over short distances. When the cars passed near government pollution monitoring stations, the data was similar. But the cars were able to also gather data in all of the areas that traditional stations don’t cover.
“The advantage of our sensing platform on the Google Street View cars is that it’s mobile,” she says. “The flexibility of the mobile platform allows us to respond to the shifting conditions of the day. We can get close to a source of air pollution, but we can also explore the effect of the plume in downwind regions, such as tracking regions of concern and areas that are less affected at that time. This real-time data could allow residents to plan (or postpone) outdoor activities.”
For now, the system is still being piloted with only two cars. But Aclima envisions that it will eventually have a network installed on large fleets of cars and city buses, along with building interiors and outdoor stations, streaming billions of data points to help people understand, in detail, how polluted the air they’re breathing is.