Determination of aerosol concentration using an internet protocol camera

Atmospheric aerosols have been associated with adverse health effects in areas of high concentrations. This is due to the ability of these sub-micrometer particles to penetrate further into the lung and alveoli for humans and animals. Besides this, aerosols are linked to have a significant influence on climate change and visibility. Therefore, it is important to have an effective technique to determine the aerosol concentration in environment, so that appropriate and immediate actions can be taken to stop further pollution. In this study, we developed an algorithm to convert multispectral image pixel values acquired by an internet protocol camera into quantitative values of aerosol concentrations with diameter less than 10 micrometers (PM₁₀). This algorithm was based on the regression analysis of relationship between the measured reflectance components from a surface material and the atmosphere. The newly developed algorithm can be applied to compute the PM₁₀ values. These computed PM₁₀ values were compared to other standard values measured by a DustTraktrade meter. The correlation results showed that this newly develop algorithm produced a high degree of accuracy and low root-mean-square-error (RMS) values. A program was written by using Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 to download still images automatically from the camera via the internet and utilized the newly developed algorithm to determine PM₁₀ concentration automatically and continuously. This study indicates that the technique of using internet protocol camera images can be a useful tool for monitoring temporal development of air quality.