Education & Resources
Air quality is known and valued to ensure clean, healthy air for today and tomorrow.
September 2023
Purple Air Network Expansion
Welcome Prairie Rose School Division- Foremost, Jenner, Irvine, and Ralston Schools
PurpleAir sensors measure airborne particulate matter (PM): dust, smoke, and tiny bits of other materials. These inexpensive devices use a laser beam to count the number and size of particles as they pass through a sampling chamber. The result is expressed on a scale of 0 (low) to 500 (high) to describe the average concentration of particles small enough to affect human health (2.5 μm or less).
PurpleAir sensors are used in many countries in a variety of “citizen science” and educational projects. In the spring of 2022 PAS purchased and installed three sensors. In addition Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) donated 19 sensors which PAS has installed in communities across our Airshed.
PAS Communities Hosting PurpleAir Sensors
Acadia Valley, Bassano, Bow Island, Brooks, Consort, Duchess, Foremost, Empress, Hanna, Irvine, Jenner, Medicine Hat (Crescent Heights and Desert Blume Golf Course), Milk River, Oyen, Ralston, Raymond, Redcliff, Stirling, Vauxhall, Warner, Youngstown.
PM2.5 data is not, by itself, an adequate measure of air quality. In Alberta, measurements of three air components are combined into a single number – the Air Quality Health Index (AQHI). The AQHI represents the overall impact of air quality on human health by a scale from 1 (good) to 10+(most harmful).0
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Clean Air Day · 2024
Alberta Airsheds Council Air Quality Report
A province-wide summary of the air quality data monitored and collected by Alberta’s Airsheds.
In honor of Clean Air Day, the Alberta Airsheds Council (AAC) has prepared their 2024 Annual Air Quality Report to provide a summary of the air quality data that is monitored and collected in our province by Alberta’s Airsheds. To view the full 2024 Annual Air Quality Report, visit Air Quality Reports — Alberta Airsheds Council.
The AAC is made up of Alberta’s 10 Airsheds, which are regional air quality organizations responsible for independent ambient air monitoring, stakeholder engagement, public awareness, and education. Alberta’s Airsheds operate 86 continuous monitoring stations, plus various technologies at hundreds of other locations, that monitor the air in which Albertans breathe. The AAC and Alberta’s Airsheds work in partnership with the Government of Alberta and other stakeholders.
For more information on how AAC serves its members by leveraging resources, building capacity, and facilitating strategic collaboration with external stakeholders, visit our website at https://www.albertaairshedscouncil.ca/air-quality-reports