SENTINEL: A Shiny App for Processing and Analysis of Fenceline Sensor Data

Abstract

SENTINEL (SEnsor NeTwork INtelligent Emissions Locator) is an application developed in R Shiny to support emerging user groups of lower cost fenceline sensors, such as those monitoring volatile organic compound or methane concentrations inside and near industrial facilities or for emergency response applications. During deployment, sensors collect a large quantity of high-frequency pollutant concentration data, time-aligned meteorological information, and sensor performance indicators. These sensors can collect a quantity of data that is overwhelming for users to process and understand without designated software. The SENTINEL application provides users with a consistent framework for processing, analyzing, and visualizing fenceline sensor data. SENTINEL temporally aggregates data for synthesized analysis and interpretation. Quality assurance screening automatically removes anomalous datapoints and a baseline correction algorithm reduces background drift in pollutant concentration data. SENTINEL offers streamlined sensor data analysis through a user-friendly graphical user interface that supports interpretation of source emission data and sensor-triggered field samples.