Flight Mode
'Turn AirSpot flight mode on around the time of aeroplane take off and remember to turn it off when coming in to land.'
As altitude increases the air pressure decreases, the air becomes 'thinner' - that is there are less molecules of air. Carbon Dioxide molecules make up a percentage of these air molecules - resultantly there are less CO2 molecules in this thin air at altitude.
Most CO2 monitors work through attempting to measure the number of CO2 molecules so without some feedback system which measures pressure the monitors themselves will tend to under-read the CO2 level.
The current AirSpot device does not have an inbuilt pressure sensor so we are reliant on other systems to adjust for this under-reading.
The majority of the time CO2 monitors will be used in environments where the atmospheric pressure does not alter significantly or quickly so pressure variations will not be an issue.
A gradual change in atmospheric pressure, for example travelling to a high altitude mountain can be compensated for by turning the auto-calibrate function of the AirSpot device on. However this would not suffice for rapid changes in pressure.
We'e introduced Flight Mode to compensate for the more rapid pressure changes experienced during commercial flights.
We've extrapolated the information provided by Sensirion to generate an algorithm which compensates for the pressure changes experienced on the average commercial flight:
Most commercial flights reach a cabin pressure of 8000 feet above sea level taking around 15 minutes to reach this level.
When flight mode is turned on via the AirSpot App the measured level is increased by a multiple of 1.6 to approximate an average cabin pressure on commercial flights at cruising altitude.
Remember to turn Flight Mode on around the time of plane take off and to turn it off again as the plane comes in to land. We've set the flight mode icon on the device to flash every now and then when this mode is turned on as a helpful reminder for you to turn it off.
Please be aware that the CO2 levels provided by flight mode on the AirSpot device will not be as accurate as those devices with inbuilt compensatory pressure sensors.
For more information on the latest software updates with AirSpot please click on this link: https://airspothealth.myshopify.com/a/blog/airspot-device-and-app-latest-software-release
