OpenAQ is excited to spotlight Clarity, a global provider of air quality monitoring systems and sensors. Founded in 2014 as a way to combat the global air pollution crisis, Clarity’s next-generation technology is now deployed in over 70 countries. Clarity has been an OpenAQ partner since 2021 when we first began aggregating air sensor data (see partnership launch blog here), making them a long-standing partner whose sharing of data supports our mission to make air quality data universally accessible to influence policy making, support scientific inquiry, and increase air quality awareness as a whole.
Clarity’s mission is to empower cities and industries to understand air pollution issues through data collection in order to take effective action. This is performed through their IoT-based air quality monitoring technology. Clarity has established a solution to the lack of air quality data through their network of cost-effective and accurate sensors. This network consists of continuously-calibrated sensors that provide real-time air quality data, increasing accessibility to air quality advocates worldwide.
Sean Wihera, Vice President, Business Development and Partnerships at Clarity emphasizes the importance of open-access data within the company: “We believe regional collaboration and transparency are essential for successfully improving air quality management. It is a complex political, economic, and scientific challenge that requires cooperation between numerous groups of diverse stakeholders. It’s critically important that all parties have access to trustworthy, accurate data to enable informed decision making on how to best manage their shared environment.”
Clarity’s Node-S air quality monitors provide accurate, easy, and affordable PM and NO2 monitoring. The monitor utilizes a modular system, enabling expansion of one’s monitoring system to additionally measure wind, ozone, black carbon, and wildfire hazards. Clarity helps to ensure air quality data from all provided sensors is accurate and trustworthy through calibration and correction methods.
Clarity’s fleet deployment style of air monitors enables a supplemental network to reference monitors. Governments, environmental justice groups, and communities can partner with Clarity to perform projects that truly make an impact. Examples are the Los Angeles Unified School District, Brightline Defense in San Francisco, and the cities of Almaty in Kazakhstan and Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan, all of which provide air quality data to the OpenAQ Platform.
Clarity has partnered with the Los Angeles Unified School District to deploy 200 Node-S air quality monitors across 710 square miles to establish the Know Your Air Network. Los Angeles Unified utilizes this network to inform school staff and the surrounding community of pollution levels during emergency events such as wildfires and poor air quality episodes in order to determine the best course of action to protect student health. The Know Your Air network has enabled the distribution of critical air quality information to Los Angeles Unified’s 575,000 students, 74,000 staff members, and parent community.
Clarity has also collaborated with the Kyrgyzhydromet and Asian Development Bank’s Almaty-Bishkek Economic Corridor (ABEC) Initiative to deploy a Node-S air sensor network measuring PM2.5 concentrations. Through this monitoring, it was determined that the most significant cause of PM2.5 pollution in Bishkek comes from stationary sources, such as residential heatings, rather than mobile sources, such as transportation vehicles. This report led to $50 million USD in funding for air quality improvements to be enacted in Bishkek.
Sean reflects on the gratification of Clarity’s work in the ABEC: “While quantifying and understanding air pollution is the first step, using that data to take action and make serious investments is critical to actually making the improvements we want in our communities. It’s really rewarding to see the requisite scale of resources being allocated to address the problem — and now I’m looking forward to watching the data as the solutions are implemented!”
The collaboration between Clarity and OpenAQ marks a significant advancement in collecting and sharing data generated in smaller communities. “OpenAQ is an amazing resource that makes it so much easier for our government and community partners to share their Clarity data with the wider world,” said Sean. “Once the data is hosted by OpenAQ, communities can effectively crowdsource valuable analyses for their unique communities. Similarly, air quality researchers and those building new air management tools have much easier access to real-world data sets!”
OpenAQ is immensely grateful to Clarity for being a longstanding air sensor partner that understands how impactful it is to share air quality data broadly. Discover Clarity’s data on the OpenAQ Platform!
- Go to https://explore.openaq.org/
- On the side bar, click on “Choose data providers”. (Optional: if you want to see locations with no recent updates, click the checkbox above that before clicking “data providers”.).
- Click “Select None”. Checkboxes beside all data providers will be unchecked.
- Click on the checkbox beside “Clarity”.
- Click “Update”; the map will update to show all Clarity monitor locations.
