Feasibility of low-cost particulate matter sensors for long-term environmental monitoring: Field evaluation and calibration

Low-cost sensor networks offer the potential to reduce monitoring costs while providing high-resolution spatiotemporal data on pollutant levels. However, these sensors come with limitations, and many aspects of their field performance remain underexplored. During October to December 2023, this study deployed two identical low-cost sensor systems near an urban standard monitoring station to record PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations, along with environmental temperature and humidity. Our evaluation of the monitoring performance of these sensors revealed a broad data distribution with a systematic overestimation; this overestimation was more pronounced in PM10 readings. The sensors showed good consistency (R2 > 0.9, NRMSE