San Diego sensor network monitors area carbon dioxide for the first time

A University of California, Berkeley professor initiated an air monitoring program that measures carbon dioxide and other parameters to evaluate greenhouse gas reduction efforts in California, according to the San Francisco Public Press.

California may have strict carbon dioxide emissions standards, but there was no monitoring network to measure carbon dioxide content in San Francisco air.

Ronald Cohen, a chemistry professor at UC, Berkeley, changed that. He has 10 sensors on school roof tops and other places in the California Bay Area. He plans to use the network to indicate whether carbon reduction efforts like cap-and-trade or vehicle emissions standards work in California. Cohen will install 40 sensors across the county.

The sensors measure nitrogen dioxide, ozone and carbon monoxide levels along with carbon dioxide. Anyone can look at sensor data by checking the data website, which documents daily readings.

California state regulators plan to keep an eye on the monitoring operation’s findings.

Image: A screenshot from the Berkeley Atmospheric CO2 Observation Network Google map (Credit: UC Berkeley)