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Atmospheric Physics; Air Pollution Monitoring and Analysis Using Purple Air
Data

Article in African Scientific Reports · August 2022

DOI: 10.46481/asr.2022.1.2.42

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 African
Scientific
African Scientific Reports 1 (2022) 123–132 Reports
Atmospheric Physics; Air Pollution Monitoring and
Analysis Using Purple Air Data
Hammed A. Lawal∗, Mukhtar I. Muhammed
Space / Atmospheric Science Research Group, Department of Physics, Air Force Institute of Technology, Nigeria

Abstract
Air pollution has become one of the agents that leads to the cause of life threatening diseases in our contemporary world. Among
the major air pollutants is the Particulate Matters PM2.5 and PM10.0 . Long-time exposure to fine particles PM2.5 and PM10.0 in
the environment has been linked to serious respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. The purpose of this research is to find the
concentration of PM in some selected areas of Lagos, Rivers and Abuja namely Lekki, Port Harcourt and Lugbe respectively using
Purpleair real time data for 12 weeks duration from 1 st November 2021 to 31 st January 2022. Findings have shown that among
the study areas, Port Harcourt has the highest concentration of Particulate Matters followed by Lugbe with a 12 weekly average
concentration of the Standard Indoor(CF1) PM2.5 & PM10.0 concentration and Standard Outdoor or Atmospheric(ATM) PM2.5
concentration to be 87.80 µg/m3 , 101.76 µg/m3 and 63.15 µg/m3 respectively while Abuja has an average PM2.5 CF1, PM10.0 CF1
and PM2.5 ATM values of 70.51 µg/m3 , 86.21 µg/m3 and 52.07 µg/m3 respectively. It was also found that the relationship between
PM2.5 and PM10.0 showed a positive correlation with r = 0.99 indicating strong linear relationship.

DOI:10.46481/asr.2022.1.2.42
Keywords: Particulate matters, PurpleAir data, Air pollution, Pollutant, Concentration

Article History :
Received: 29 June 2022
Received in revised form: 21 August 2022
Accepted for publication: 23 August 2022
Published: 29 August 2022

© 2022 The Author(s). Published by the Nigerian Society of Physical Sciences under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further
distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.
Communicated by: Aanuoluwapo R. Obasuyi

1. Introduction

Air pollution has become one of the agents that leads to the cause of life threatening diseases in our contemporary
world. According to WHO, almost the entire global population (99%) breathes air that exceeds WHO guidelines.

∗ Correspondingauthor tel. no: +2349058448329

Email address: hadelawal@[Link]; [Link]@[Link] (Hammed A. Lawal)

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The major air pollutants according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are Ground-level ozone, Carbon
monoxide, Sulfur dioxide, Nitrogen dioxide and Particulate Matter (PM2.5 and PM10 ). PM is a heterogeneous and
complex mixture of liquid and solid particle in the ambient air having different sizes like fine PM2.5 and coarse PM10
[1]. These particles are either physical or chemical particles. According to a report by the United State Environmental
Protection Agency EPA; PM2.5 are fine inhalable particles with diameters that are generally 2.5 micrometers and
smaller while PM10 are inhalable particles, with diameters that are generally 10 micrometers and smaller. PM10 are
coarse particles that include PM2.5 and particles up to 10 micrometers in diameter [2]. Owing to the size of PM2.5 , they
can travel far and can easily be inhaled through breathing. Hence, they are regarded to be more dangerous than the
PM10 . According to [3], particulate matters have been divided according to their origin into natural and anthropogenic
aerosols e.g. sooths from industries, sprayed insecticides or pesticides, exhausts from automobiles etc. [4, 5]. The
natural sources of PM include trade dusts, smoke from annual wild fire especially in the Savanna. Studies by the
EPA have shown that the size of particles is directly linked to their potential for causing health problems. However,
the duration of exposure has also been confirmed to contribute to the severity of health effect Particulate Matters
(PM) pose on humans. Sustained long-time exposure to fine particles PM2.5 and sulfur oxide related air pollution in
the environment has been linked to serious cardiovascular, respiratory, skin diseases, lung cancer and death among
postmenopausal women [6 - 8] According to Oladapo et al., [9]; Particulate matter may cause damage by discoloring
or destroying painted surfaces, corrode metals and building surfaces, soil, textiles and clothing.
In an attempt by Nathaniel et al., [2] to find the Air Quality Levels and Health Risk Assessment of Particulate
Matters in Abuja Municipal Area, Nigeria with data collected BR-SMART-126 - a handheld portable smart air quality
detector found out that the daily averaged concentrations of PM2.5 varied from 15.30 µg/m3 to 70.20 µg/m3 . Out of
the 20 study locations, they found that the top four most-polluted locations fell under business/commercial locations,
transport and residential areas. Alani et al., [4] found out that the PM2.5 concentrations ranged from 6 – 14µg/m3 in
UniLag and Agege respectively. The concentration in PM2.5 was observed to be lower than the WHO regulatory
standard. Francis et al., [10] have provided in-depth analysis of the air quality in some states for about 5 – 7 months
using NASRDA real time data. Results from this finding have revealed that the concentration of PM2.5 within this
study period in FCT, Osun, Lagos and Delta are in the range 0 -1146.73 µg/m3 , 9.1 – 236.6 µg/m3 , 23.23 – 847.75
µg/m3 and 12.11 – 487.36 µg/m3 respectively while the concentration of PM10.0 in these aforementioned regions are
in the range of 0 - 831 µg/m3 , 9.95 – 260.68 µg/m3 , 25 – 753.8 µg/m3 and 12.96 – 552.51 µg/m3 respectively.
The studies presented so far provide insight on the air quality and the Particulate Matter (PM) concentration in
some certain locations within Nigeria. Results obtained from the findings of Francis et al., [10] are based on data
obtained from NASRDA. This paper seeks to investigate the air quality and PM concentration in some areas of Lagos,
Rivers and Abuja namely; Lekki, Port Harcourt and Lugbe respectively using purple air real time data.

2. Data and Method

The data used in this paper was obtained from PurpleAir available at [Link]. The PurpleAir map is
a web application that displays a network of community-owned PurpleAir sensors. Each sensor measures and upload
airborne Particulate Matter (PM) data to the PurpleAir real time map database. The sensors use PMSX003 laser
counters to measure particulate matter in real time, with each laser counter alternating 5 second readings averaged
over 120 seconds. Each laser counter uses a fan to draw a sample of air past a laser beam. The beam from these
class IIIa/3R lasers will reflect light from any present particles onto a detection plate. The reflection is measured as a
pulse by the detection plate and the length of the pulse determines the size of the particle while the number of pulses
determines the particle count which are then used to calculate the concentration PM2.5 and PM10 for standard indoor
(CF 1) and outdoor or atmospheric (ATM) particle. The average daily data was downloaded for the period of twelve
weeks i.e. November 2021 to January 2022. As the magnitude of environmental pollution problem is linked to the
nature of activities, quantity of automobiles and quantity of waste generated by industries, we chose highly urbanized
and industrialized regions. To determine the daily variation of air pollution, we plot the graph of particulate matter
PM2.5 & PM10.0 against the days and thereafter, we found the correlation between the variation of PM and temperature
for each selected location.

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Figure 1. Map of Nigeria showing the 36 states including FCT. The colored region depicts the study area

3. Study Area

Due to the number of population and industries, we have selected some suitable areas of study from Lagos, Rivers,
and Abuja namely; Lekki, PortHarcourt and Lugbe respectively.
Lagos is Nigeria also known as Èkó (in Yoruba). It is known for its numbers of industries and large population. It is
the largest city in Nigeria. It has a land mass of about 1.171km2 with an approximate population of about 23.5Million
as at 2018. It is located in the South western part of Nigeria with latitude 6.465422 and longitude 3.406448. Because
of its high number of industries, busy sea ports etc., the city has been described as the main economic hub of the
country.
Rivers state is part of the Niger delta region of southern Nigeria with GPS coordinate of Latitude 4◦ 490 27.001200 N and
Longitude7◦ 20 0.999600 E. It is one of the states with large deposits of crude oil. As a result, it houses one of the
country’s refinery and other oil related companies.
Abuja is the capital city of Nigeria. It is located in the North Central Nigeria with Latitude 9.072264 and longitude
7.491302. Abuja being the Federal Capital Territory, is a home for the major administrative institutions in Nigeria and
because of this, it has accommodated a good number of people whose major means of transportation is automobiles.
It is one of the Northern states faced with dry and dusty northeasterly trade wind from the Sahara especially during
harmattan season.
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Figure 2. Daily variation of PMsC F1(Standard Indoor concentration)

4. Results and Discussion

Air quality and concentration of particulate matter (PM2.5 , PM10.0 ), Humidity and Temperature in Lekki, Port
Harcourt and Lugbe. (Figure 1 above) as monitored and collected by purple air sensors over a period of 12 weeks,
between November 1 st 2021 to January 31 st 2022 have been analyzed.
Figure 2 – Figure 4 shows the atmospheric data variation from Lekki, Lagos Nigeria.
Figure 5 – Figure 7 shows the data variation from Port Harcourt; Rivers state.
Figure 8 – Figure 9 shows the data variation from Lugbe, Abuja.
Figure 2 shows the daily variation of Particulate matters PM2.5 CF1 and PM10.0 CF1. The sensor was down
from the 4th to 6th and 8th to 24th November 2021. The variation of PM2.5 CF1 and PM10.0 CF1 fluctuates between
29.84µg/m3 and 53µg/m3 from 26th November to 5th December 2021. The PM (2.5 & 10.0) steadily increased within
the interval 14th – 18th December 2021 with PM10.0 CF1 = 129.58µg/m3 and PM2.5 CF1 = 103.78µg/m3 . They
decreased rather steadily and, on the 21st December, they started to increase steadily to reach PM2.5 CF1 peak =
136.9µg/m3 and PM10.0 CF1 peak = 156.73µg/m3. PM2.5 CF1 is seen to lag as can be observed from the plot. They
decreased steadily and thereafter, show little variation for the rest of the study period.
Figure 3 shows the daily variation of PM2.5 , Temperature (F) and Humidity. The sensor was offline from the 4th
to 6th and 8th to 24th November 2021. The temperature is seen to maintain almost steady mean value within the study
period. PM2.5 ATM shows great fluctuation within the interval 26th November 2021 and 18th December 2021. It
decreased and on the 31 st December, PM2.5 CF1 increased steadily reaching PM2.5 CF1peak = 91.2µg/m3 on the 23rd
of December 2021. The Relative Humidity (RH) was observed to show fairly steady variation until 16th December
2021, when the humidity dropped from 59% to 41%. This decrease in humidity lasted for about three days and on the
22nd of December 2021, the humidity began to increase to attain a value humidity = 61% on the 26th of December.
The humidity began to vary slowly until 5th of January when it depressed to 40%.
Figure 4 shows the scatter diagram showing the correlation between the Particulate matters PM10.0 and PM2.5 , The
scatter diagram is seen to show a positive correlation. The Pearson correlation coefficient = 0.99 indicating a very
strong correlation.

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Figure 3. Daily variation of PM2.5 ATM, Temperature (F) and Humidity (%)

Figure 4. Scatter plot showing correlation between PM10.0 CF1 and PM2.5 CF1

Figure 5 shows the daily variation of PM2.5 CF1 and PM10.0 CF 1. On the 6th of November 2021, PM10.0 =
104µg/m3 while PM2.5 = 90.3µg/m3. It gradually decreased from 6th – 8th of December to about 35.9µg/m3 and
immediately, it was seen to increase to about 93µg/m3 . The sensor was offline from 11th – 15th , 21 st – 22nd November,
18th – 26th December 2021 and 3rd – 10th January 2022 and hence, no data collected within these period as can be
observed in Figure 5 above. From 15th – 20th November, the PM10.0 fluctuates between 108µg/m3 to 120µg/m3 and
from the 22nd while PM2.5 fluctuates between 95µg/m3 to 104µg/m3 . On the 24th , PM10.0 = 160.17µg/m3 while
PM2.5 = 76.39µg/m3 . It sharply decreased and immediately, PM10.0 and PM2.5 increased abruptly to 252.4µg/m3
and 152.2µg/m3 respectively on the 28th December 2021. It decreased sharply to 152 and 109µg/m3 for PM10 and
PM2.5 respectively and began to fluctuate between 242 to 231µg/m3 . The highest concentration recorded occurred on
the 15th December 2021 with a corresponding PM10.0 and PM2.5 values of 302.16µg/m3 and 251µg/m3 respectively.
Figure 6 shows the daily variation of Temperature (F), Humidity and PM2.5 ATM. The temperature was fairly
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Figure 5. Daily variation of PM2.5 CF1 & PM10.0 CF1

steady with an average value of 89.2F within the study period. The purple air sensor was offline from 11th – 15th , 21 st
– 22nd November, 18th – 26th December 2021 and 3rd – 10th January 2022 thereby depriving us the daily data within
these periods. PM2.5 ATM vary between 26 – 73µg/m3 within the interval November 1 st – November 19th , 2021. On
the 24th of November, PM2.5 = 124 µg/m3 . It sharply decreased to 49.7 and after then, steadily increased to PM2.5 =
142.59, November 28. Thereafter, PM2.5 showed large fluctuation until December 15th when it began to increase to
attain a PM2.5 peak = 167.16 µg/m3 . The humidity showed fairly steady variation until December 16th when it sharply
decreased to 28% just after PM2.5 maximum.
Figure 7 shows the correlation between the particulate matters PM2.5 CF 1 and PM10.0 CF1. The scatter diagram
shows a positive correlation. The Pearson correlation coefficient r = 0.99 indicating a very strong correlation.
Figure 8 shows the daily variation of PM2.5 CF1 and PM10.0 CF1 in Lugbe, Abuja Nigeria. The sensor was
not active from 5th -7th , 27th -29th November, 3rd – 6th , 10th – 12th , 15th – 20th December 2021, 24th – 28th and 30th
December to January 2nd , 2022. The PM concentration ranges between 34µg/m3 - 213 µg/m3 for PM10.0 CF1 and
198 µg/m3 for PM2.5 CF1. PM2.5 CF1 decreased steadily from 154 µg/m3 to 32.5 µg/m3 January 2nd . Immediately,
it began to increase fairly steadily to reach PM2.5 = 190 µg/m3 January 9 while the concentration of PM10.0 CF1 =
213.3µg/m3 . The highest concentration of the PM (2.5 CF1 and 10.0 CF1) was recorded on the 14th January 22
with a corresponding PM2.5 CF1 = 198 µg/m3 and PM10.0 CF1= 220 µg/m3 . Similarly, the highest concentration of
PM2.5 ATM recorded was January 14th 2022 with PM ATM= 131.4 µg/m3 .
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Figure 6. Daily variation of Temperature (F), Humidity and PM2.5 ATM

Figure 7. Scatter diagram showing the correlation of PM10 with PM2.5

5. Discussion

The level of negligence on air and air quality by the majority is a matter of great concern. The unmonitored hu-
man activities and lack of compliance to preventive measures has contributed a great quota to the cause of ambient air
pollution. Analysis from the data collected over a period of 12 weeks have shown that the PM10.0 CF1 concentration
in Lekki, Port Harcourt, and Lugbe are between 11.42 – 156.73µg/m3 , 32-302 µg/m3 and 34-213µg/m3 respectively
while PM2.5 CF1 concentration within these locations ranges between 26 – 136.9µg/m3 , 50 - 251µg/m3 and 34 -
198µg/m3 respectively. River state is the most polluted area within this study period followed by Abuja. Similarly, re-
sults obtained by Oladapo et al., [9] from the assessment of atmospheric particulate matter at three emerging industrial
sites in Port Harcourt indicated higher concentration of PM.
The average concentration of PM2.5 CF, PM10.0 CF and PM2.5 ATM for the three weeks study period as shown in
Table 1 are 30.57, 34.47 and 24.15µg/m3 respectively. It can be observed from Figure 6 that the daily concentration of
Particulate Matters PM2.5 ATM is within the range of 35-167 µg/m3 while PM10.0 CF1 and PM2.5 CF1 ranges from
32-302 µg/m3 and 50-251 µg/m3 respectively. These values are beyond the WHO regulation on Air Quality and Air
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Figure 8. Daily variation of PM2.5 CF1 and PM10.0 CF1

Figure 9. Daily variation of PM2.5 ATM

Table 1. Monthly Average PM Concentration from November 2021 – January 2022

Location PM2.5 CF1 average(µg/m3 ) PM10.0 CF1 average(µg/m3 ) PM2.5 ATM average(µg/m3 )
Lekki 30.57 34.47 24.15
Port Harcourt 87.80 101.76 63.15
Abuja 70.51 86.21 52.07

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Table 2. Air quality index for PM2.5 and PM10.0 (Source: [2])

Table 3. Monthly average air quality and correlation r between PM2.5 and meteorological factors
Average Monthly PM2.5 & PM2.5 & Relative
Study Location Months PM2.5 Concentration Temperature Relative Hu- Humidity
(µg/m3 ) midity &
Temperature
November 26.87 - 0.34 0.78 -0.52
Lekki 2021
December 39.19 -0.23 -0.68 0.64
2021
January 2022 8.05 -0.71 -0.69 0.27
November 60.04 -0.49 0.61 -0.95
Port Harcourt 2021
December 76.42 -0.61 0.16 -0.63
2021
January 2022 55.15 -0.12 -0.22 -0.59
November 44.16 -0.21 0.09 -0.69
Lugbe 2021
December 48.55 0.02 0.37 -0.47
2021
January 2022 73.73 0.46 0.77 0.39

pollution level.
It was observed from Figure 9 that the daily concentration of PM2.5 in Lugbe fluctuates between 31 and 52 µg/m3
within the interval 1 st – 18th November 2022. This observed value falls within Level 2 and Level 3 (Table 2) i.e. un-
healthy for sensitive group. However, an abrupt increase in PM2.5 concentration (i.e. PM2.5 ≥ 59µg/m3 ) was observed
within the interval November 11, 2021 – January 28, 2022. This PM concentration according to daily air quality
standard level is classified very dangerous and thus very unhealthy for both sensitive group (e.g. Asthmatic patients)
and insensitive group.
A possible explanation for the rise in the concentration of PM in industrialized area like Port Harcourt (Table 3)
in the month of November and December could be as a result of increase in industrial production. It is noteworthy
that the annual break for most organizations in Nigeria is usually in November or December and within these periods,
most industries continuously work so as to have enough stock available during the break. However, in Lugbe - a
semi-industrialized area, the highest concentration of PM2.5 was in January. It seems possible that this increase in
the concentration of PM2.5 results from the increasing number of automobiles travelling the road of Abuja as it is the
major route linking the Northern Nigeria to the Southern, Western and Eastern part of the country.

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The impact of Relative Humidity (RH) on the daily average concentration of PM2.5 as studied by Rasa et al., [11]
have revealed that the RH correlated positively with the daily average PM2.5 concentration in traffic busy areas and
negative in more industrial areas. However, in this work, the correlation between the PM2.5 and RH vary within the
study areas (Table 3). This variation could be due to the variation of the climatic condition in these study locations.

6. Conclusion

In our study to find the concentration of Particulate matters (PM) in Lekki, Lugbe and Port Harcourt, results
obtained from our analysis using data from purpleAir map have revealed that the most polluted of the three locations
is Port Harcourt with 12 weekly average PM2.5 CF1, PM10.0 CF1 and PM2.5 ATM of 87.80 µg/m3 , 101.76 µg/m3 and
63.15 µg/m3 respectively while Lugbe has an average PM2.5 CF1, PM10.0 CF1 and PM2.5 ATM values of 70.51 µg/m3 ,
86.21 µg/m3 and 52.07 µg/m3 respectively. The correlation coefficient r obtained from the linear relationship between
PM2.5 and PM10.0 obtained from the study areas were found to be 0.99 each indicating a good positive correlation.
The high concentration of PM in these affected states results from the increasing number of automobiles and industrial
activities. To reduce this pollution, it is suggested that trees be planted on the edges of the road in order to trap some
of these toxic gasses emitted from moving automobiles. Also, proper regulation in the disposal of industrial waste be
adopted especially gas flares from refineries as this has jeopardized the health of the people living within these areas.

Acknowledgment

The data used in this research was provided for free by [Link]. We are very grateful for their support.

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