How to claim your PurpleAir sensor

Learn how to claim and promote your PurpleAir sensor by creating a contributor profile.

Kelsey avatar
Written by Kelsey
Updated yesterday

PurpleAir sensors are seamlessly integrated into the IQAir platform. This collaboration helps grow the impact of a station’s data and contributes to improved air quality models, forecasts and applications. It also allows station owners to benefit from contributor features on the IQAir app and website.

All contributors have the option to claim their devices in order to receive acknowledgement for their contribution and increase their project’s visibility with a “contributor profile.” A contributor profile is a public landing-page on IQAir.com and the IQAir app that promotes a mission or organization with a bio, images, and links to third-party websites and social media accounts.

Until PurpleAir devices are claimed, these sensors will remain anonymous. Follow the steps below to claim PurpleAir stations that are already live on the IQAir platform:

1. Login to the IQAir Dashboard. If new, create an IQAir account, verify your e-mail address, and login.

2. Start PurpleAir onboarding process. Click 'Add Device' on your dashboard to begin the process:

  • Type in your device’s serial number.

To find your PurpleAir serial number, search for your original PurpleAir confirmation email. Under "For programmers", the serial number to claim your PurpleAir sensor is the number after “show=”, example below:

3. Submit station information. Follow the publication process to make your PurpleAir sensor online:

1) You will be asked to confirm the GPS co-ordinates of your monitor, which is auto-filled in this section.

2) Give your station its name as it will be seen on the map (we recommand to use a landmark, school, or street name, to identify the general location of your station. Do not use your city name, it will be automatically added).

3) Confirm the location information of your monitor, which is also auto-filled. Add category and installation height of your monitor.

4) Upload installation pictures of your device. Please include 3 images: a closeup of the device ID / MAC address (to prove ownership of the device), a picture from 1-meter (~3 feet) away, and a picture from 10 meters (~32 feet) away to capture the surroundings. These images help to identify your PurpleAir device and show the device’s surroundings as safe from hyperlocal emissions.

The pictures will not be public and used only to validate the installation, unless you choose visible for them. You can upload pictures for your brand or your workplace for marketing purposes.

4. Edit your contributor profile for your IQAir account. Fill in the requested fields to share information about your project and/or mission. Contributor profiles provide a dedicated landing page for users to learn more about the contributor’s goals and current monitoring network, as well as link to a contributor’s website and social media pages.

5. Claim more devices. Add more PurpleAir sensors to your profile. There are two ways:

A) To claim more PurpleAir sensors, either repeat the process listed above,

OR

B) Search the location of your PurpleAir sensor on IQAir website. On station page, scroll down to the data attribution section, and click 'Claim my PurpleAir'.

6. Check your sensor’s status. Once you submit the publication, you will receive a confirmation via email. To check the publication status of your monitor, simply login to your IQAir Dashboard and go to your device detail page. On the top-right corner of the page, click 'Manage your publication'.

After your device is approved, another email notification will be sent to your mailbox.

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