Masterton has many high particle air pollution days (measured as PM2.5) that fail to meet World Health Organization guidelines during the winter months when emissions from wood burning for home heating coincide with calm and cold weather patterns. Mobile car-based monitoring using a “SmokeTrak” instrument was carried out over several winter evenings in Masterton during winter 2018. The results were used to map spatial variation wood smoke levels across the Masterton urban area as a first step towards identifying areas with high wood smoke that could potentially receive targeted education and assistance to reduce emissions of fine particles from wood smoke.

Keywords: Masterton, wood smoke, PM2.5, home heating, mobile monitoring, air quality