PPS hits the Roads!

I haven't blogged for a while on the basis that one should only blog when you have something interesting to say.

Yes, the PPS hit the roads last week - The Carrick Roads!

Last week I took delivery of a prototype PPS and spent some time "playing" with it around the area where we live. Because the sensor is so small and because you can power it from a laptop for some time (depends how good your laptop cell is!) I checked out the weather and decided to stick the sensor in the car for the short drive south to St Mawes. The route takes you along the ridge to the east of the Carrick Roads (on Cornwall's south coast) and with a southwesterly blowing I was interested in seeing what we would pick up from the Anglian Princess which was moored just off our coast. 

Anglian Princess is a UK Maritime and CoastGuard Emergency Towing Vehicle which is always ready to go to an emergency anywhere in the western approaches so it stays powered up 24/7. As a consequence, there is usually the distant, dull drone of a diesel engine carrying on the wind! I wondered if I could pick up anything else that was being carried on the wind. I slowly drove south with just a slight background signal, barely raising it's head out of the noise. There was not much wind and a long swell was rolling in without doing anything too energetic like breaking, so the maritime aerosol that so often coats our windows with salt was at a very low level. The car window was open so I could hear the siren call of Anglian Princess as I got to the top of Windmill Hill. Sure enough, the PPS started to take an interest and the number count started to climb, not a lot but just enough for me to be able to identify the margins of the plume. The unit I had had not been calibrated, so I wont quote any numbers at you, but I will say that even at the peak of the plume's concentration, you would never have seen it against the levels typically monitored in our urban air. 

This week I am taking a production unit out to customers with Leena Nappi from Pegasor. Maybe we will get to see what the levels are along the M4 and M25!