Arizona teen's drone survey finds rural ground-level CO2 can exceed urban readings

A 13-year-old student in Arizona built a drone with a CO2 sensor and GPS to measure ground-level carbon dioxide at different altitudes. Expecting city streets to show the highest concentrations, he found that rural areas with dense vegetation and calm air often had higher readings. The results point to natural respiration and soil microbes as significant sources of localized CO2 buildup that typical ground monitors miss. The project, a finalist in the Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge, demonstrates how low-cost DIY equipment can produce useful atmospheric data. It also highlights the value of multi-level sampling: stationary sensors only capture ground conditions, while drone flights reveal how gases accumulate and move at different heights. The findings challenge simple assumptions about urban versus rural emissions and suggest that monitoring networks may need to account for biological and topographic factors more carefully.