Built for air quality professionals
The NebuleAir Pro is an outdoor sensor for consultancies, local authorities, research centres and companies. It measures fine particulate matter (PM1, PM2.5 and PM10), temperature, relative humidity and atmospheric pressure. Particle measurements come from the NextPM, an optical particle counter made in France by Tera Sensor.
How it works
The sensor sends its readings every minute over a 4G NB-IoT modem, so it does not depend on a local WiFi network. The multi-operator SIM card is built in and picks the network automatically; the unit is configured at the factory and starts transmitting once powered. It runs from mains power, or from a battery and solar panel on sites with no power supply (on request).
Electrochemical gas probes and a sound level meter can be added to extend what it measures (on request).
NebuleAir Pro 4G
Price on request
The NextPM counts particles from 0.3 to 10 µm with a laser, reading the scattered light at two angles (45° and 90°), and reports PM1, PM2.5 and PM10 in µg/m³. It has been evaluated in the field and in the laboratory by AQ-SPEC, the sensor testing programme of the South Coast Air Quality Management District (California). The reports are listed in the AQ-SPEC summary table.
Sensor details
- Particle sensor: NextPM (Tera Sensor), PM1, PM2.5, PM10
- Environment sensor: BME280 (Bosch), temperature, humidity, pressure
- Platform: Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4, running Linux
- Connectivity: 4G modem u-blox SARA-R500 on NB-IoT, with multi-operator SIM card
- Built-in WiFi for local setup, and as an additional data link
- Local SQLite database on the sensor, retrievable if the mobile link fails
- Weatherproof enclosure for outdoor installation: Takachi WP15-21-6G, 150 × 210 × 55 mm, with 3D-printed PETG parts added on the sides and bottom
- Power: 220 V / 5 V mains adapter, or solar kit
- Consumption (PM version): about 350 mA at 5 V, or 1.75 W on average, with peaks up to 1 A at start-up
- Weight: 600 g
Optional sensors
- Electrochemical gas probes from Cairsens® (Envea): NO2, O3 and other gases depending on the available models
- Electrochemical gas probes from Alphasense, depending on the available models
- Sound level meter: NSRT mk4 (Convergence Instruments), with a type 1 microphone
Solar power for isolated sites
For masts, rural areas or construction sites without a power supply, the solar kit combines a 50 W monocrystalline panel (67 × 46 cm) on a 45° pole mount with a Solar Powerbox PERF 120 from our partner Re-Lion: 120 Wh lithium-ion battery, integrated solar charge controller and BMS, IP65, operating range −20 °C to +60 °C.
Re-Lion simulated this setup with sunshine data going back to 2005, for the PM version of the sensor (1.75 W). Short outages remain possible during long periods of low sunshine, particularly in winter and in northern France. Re-Lion can run a simulation for a specific site.
| Location | Typical year | Worst year since 2005 |
|---|---|---|
| Marseille (France) | No outage | 14 h of outage, 99.5 % availability |
| Lille (France) | 210 h of outage, 92.7 % availability | 469 h of outage, 83.7 % availability |
Getting the data
- Charts in the MonNebuleAir web interface, using the sensor name and token supplied on the delivery note
- AirCarto API: JSON time series, raw (about one reading per minute) or averaged, timestamps in UTC
- Directly from the sensor's local database, over its WiFi hotspot
The firmware is open source and available on our Gitea repository. Full technical documentation, including STEP files of the enclosure, is on the AirCarto wiki (in French).
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