Suitability of the low-cost SDS011 particle sensor for urban PM monitoring

In Particulate Matter (PM) monitoring, a paradigm shift towards incorporating distributed sensing approaches using low-cost sensors has begun [1]. In past research, early generations of low-cost particle sensors based on IR light scattering have been compared with official measurement stations, showing that these sensors can in principle capture the dynamics of ambient PM levels [2,3], but may suffer from low calibration stability [2], are unable to differentiate size classes [3], and may be susceptible to other sources of error [4]. Current low-cost sensor generations that rely on laser scattering claim to exhibit a better level of stability and feature internal digital processing in order to achieve more accurate results. While they are mostly designated as PM2.5 sensors, some also output values for PM10 and/or PM1.