Keynote and Invited Speakers

"Air quality monitoring - Bridging the gap from the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service to local air quality monitoring in citizen science projects" Prof. Dr. Michael Hahn Stuttgart University of Applied Sciences, Stuttgart, Germany

In this presentation we highlight concepts dedicated to air quality monitoring in urban areas and focused on aerosol optical depth (AOD) and particulate matter (PM 2.5 and 10). Where more than 50% of the world's population already live today, there is a sustained interest in obtaining information about air pollution, e.g. visualized in the form of a detailed map, which must be continuously updated and, if possible, also includes forecasts.

The Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service CAMS offers such a mapping service that provides current data and forecasts for days in advance, albeit at a coarse spatial resolution of 0.1 x 0.1 degrees. A completely different approach is pursued by citizen science initiatives, in which committed citizens get involved to locally measure air quality with simple sensor technology.

There is a huge gap between the two approaches. Generating a highly detailed map at a city level requires further refinement of the modelling. In an ongoing study we assess the suitability of Sentinel-2 images to retrieve AOD with an even higher spatial resolution at a city level, i.e. a resolution level representing buildings and streets. We take into account the recordings of the very small number of high-quality air monitoring stations of regional environmental authorities to supplement the point-by-point records of low-cost (and low-quality) sensors. Further we look at performance indicators that help to interpret the validation measurements for both satellite and non-satellite measurements.