Pollen monitoring in real time
Ecosystem Pollen Monitoring
Pollen allergy is a largely underestimated disease. At the same time, pollen plays a crucial role in the Earth system, especially in the interactions between atmosphere, biosphere and climate. In the public health focus, the interaction of pollen exposure, air pollution and climate change is leading to an increasing number of pollen allergy sufferers.
Better pollen information for allergy prevention, medicine and science is needed to better understand the interactions and counteract the increasing number of pollen allergy sufferers.
Our main topics
• Challenges
• Real-time measurement
• SwisensEcosystem
• New standards
Challenges of real-time pollen monitoring
The current information available in Europe on the main pollen species in the air is largely determined by manual measurement methods. For operational monitoring, manual measurement methods provide low temporal resolution and require elaborate laboratory processes to measure and identify pollen concentrations. This leads to incomplete and time-delayed pollen information.

Manual measurement methods

Real-time measurement of pollen
Automated real-time measuring instruments provide data every hour or even every minute without time-consuming ancillary processes. However, they also bring new requirements in operational use.
The solution is therefore not a single measuring system, but a combination of components for reliable real-time pollen monitoring.
Characteristics of real-time pollen monitoring
- reliable and tested measuring principle
- continuous quality assurance
- use of artificial intelligence
- integrated algorithms for pollen identification
- seamless extension of algorithms to local flora
- fully automatic operation and low maintenance
- Integrated data management and BigData processing




New standards in pollen monitoring
MeteoSwiss pioneers the automation of the pollen measurement network. Swisens convinces MeteoSwiss and supplies the systems for the nationwide Swiss Automated Pollen Network.
Swiss Automated Pollen Network
In close scientific cooperation with the renowned Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology MeteoSwiss, Swisens has developed a special solution for real-time pollen measurement. Swisens supplies the the nationwide pollen measurement network “Swiss Automated Pollen Network” and supports MeteoSwiss in this unique pioneering achievement. The entire network with 18 monitoring stations will be ready for use in 2022 and will set new standards for automated pollen measurements in Europe and around the world.

SwisensEcosystem Pollen Monitoring

Both the scientific community and pollen monitoring station operators are in need of better and more reliable real-time pollen monitoring data. Swisens offers a comprehensive monitoring system consisting of hardware, software and service components. Through the intelligent combination of components, the Swisens ecosystem provides comprehensive support in dealing with the latest technologies and thus paves the way for the new era of real-time pollen monitoring.
The automated pollen measurements of Swisens, identifies pollen within seconds and allows the calculation of the actual local pollen concentration with a time resolution in the range of minutes.
- reliable real-time pollen data with SwisensPoleno Mars
- immediate check of measurement results with SwisensDataExplorer
- independent further development of AI with SwisensAtomizer and SwisenAIFactory
- access to the latest Swisens algorithms
- fast commissioning and simple operation with SwisensAccelerators
- integrated data management with SwisensData
- remote service and annual maintenance with SwisensCare
Components
Hardware Components
Hardware
Hardware
SwisensPoleno Mars is the new generation of real-time pollen monitoring using our sophisticated technology and offering network compatibility.
Add-on Components
Tools
SwisensAtomizer is the compact particle disperser for solid and dry particle samples such as pollen, mineral dust and other materials.
Software Components
Software
Swisens DataExplorer is a browser-based software with helpful tools for checking measurement results and monitoring hardware components in the SwisensEcosystem.
Software
Swisens DataAnalyzer is a tool set that enables efficient analysis of large amounts of data in the deep dive of BigData.
Service Components
Service
With Swisens Accelerators, we offer practical training to operate our measurement systems.
Service
Swisens Care is our service for software updates and maintenance on all Swisens systems.
Service
SwisensData is a service with server-integrated data management in the SwisensEcosystem.
Service
The SwisensAI Factory is a competence centre that offers and imparts practical training and knowledge related to automatic particle identification.
This is what our
satisfied customers say.
Benoît Crouzy –
Surface Data, Project Manager Swiss Automated Pollen Network
Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology MeteoSwiss
read more >>
Prof Martin Gallagher –
Centre for Atmospheric Science,
University of Manchester
“I speak on behalf of my colleagues who are Urban Observatory Principal Investigators and Research Collaborators from the University of Manchester that we have rarely seen, or been provided with such exemplary support as that provided by Swisens. Swisens customer support has been remarkable given the current situation, from remote training and commissioning to rapid support for hardware and software tools specific to our needs to extremely well organised seminars that actually focus on customer feedback and needs. In particular we have been impressed with the Swisens open source data approach and their attention to different users specific needs. Swisens technical innovations has already generated enormous interest in a bioaerosol-aerobiology community that until recently has been limited with respect to real-world and near real-time detection and importantly quantification of airborne bioaerosol concentrations. Their approach has developed significant rapport with multi-disciplinary researchers and Swisens should be lauded for this.”
read more >>
Mikhail Sofiev –
Research Professor
Atmospheric Composition Research Department
Finnish Meteorological Institute
read more >>
Debora Käser –
Team Leader
Department for Work Safety / Health Protection
Suva
read more >>