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Networked Greenhouse Gas Sensors for Microclimate Monitoring

CSEF · 2026 Environmental Engineering (Track 2) (Senior Division)

Charley Zhang

Overview

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is one of the most important contributing factors to global climate change. Extensive monitoring is required to determine emission impacts. Compared to orbital and aerial methods, ground-based emission monitoring attracts far less attention but have the potential to be tuned in its context and provide far greater data quality and flexibility. However, existing ground-based solutions are either expensive or cannot operate long-term. In this project, I modified commercial off the shelf components and microcontrollers to build DIY low-cost GHG sensors and PCB readout circuits to measure absolute carbon dioxide and relative methane concentrations in a variety of urban and natural environments. Each CO2 sensor is recalibrated using diluted carbon dioxide gas extracted from dry ice cubes. For longevity, the sensors are placed in custom designed weatherproof boxes. Boxes in a complete setup act as nodes that form an interconnected network of WiFi access points. This allows data to jump between nodes, centralized onto one location and processed with a custom user interface. The sensor network has been successful in highlighting emissions hotspots and detecting pipe leaks from gas lines in our campus. This small-scale experimentation serves as a demonstration of the value of such groups of sensors in microclimates. Similar sensor networks could be placed in specific areas of interest, such as locations with unregulated emissions to provide higher data resolutions and even generate economic impact through cap-and-trade programs. In the future, the aim is to develop a commercial form of this network.

Competition history

  • CSEF 2026 Environmental Engineering (Track 2) (Senior Division) · Entry S-12-19

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