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Guide to publishing Air Quality data on the World Air Quality Index project

Share: aqicn.org/publishingdata/


Publishing data on the World Air Quality Index project is free for every one. But it is also simple and straightforward: All you need to add data on the World Air Quality Index map is to provide a feed URL with the real-time information about the monitoring stations (name and location), the pollutants being measured and the real-time readings (together with the units, for instance milligrams or ppb).


Qualification Criteria

Note that the data published on the World Air Quality Index map is only official data provided by each country respective Environmental Protection Agency (see the full EPA list). Those official data are monitored using professional BAM and TEOM-like Air Quality monitoring stations.

Those stations are not trivial, and do require constant maintenance and calibration by the the EPA professional field-engineering teams. Therefore, except from specific conditions (e.g. if there no coverage in a country or a given region / city), the World Air Quality Index project does not accept any form of data generated from non-professional Air Quality monitors.

The only exception to the above rule is the semi-professional GAIA air quality monitoring stations. But, even if more affordable than the BAM and TOEMs, the GAIA stations still require regular maintenance to ensure the high level of quality for the published data.

Feed format

Since almost each country has its own reporting format, the World Air Quality Index project can accept many kind of formats for the feeds: They can be in CSV, JSON or just plain text or HTML format. You can find at the bottom of this page 3 example for CSV, HTML and JSON.

You can also check, for reference, the official feeds for Singapore, Peru or Netherlands and notice that they are all different.

Data ingestion

The World Air Quality Index system will take care of regularly checking the data from the feed, and each time an update is available, it will be processed, converted to the US EPA scale AQI values, and publish on the World Air Quality Index website within minutes.

Also, although only PM2.5, PM10, Ozone, NO2, SO2 and CO Air Quality data is published, the system does collect more pollutants for forecasting purpose: Benzen, Toluen, Ethylbenzen, NOx, THC, NMHC, PM1, Formaldehyde, Mercury, Ammonia, Methan, Hydrogen sulfide, Nitrous acid, Phenol, Naphthalene, paraxylene (p-Xylen), metaxylene (m-Xylen), etc..

It is also possible to publish meteorological data: Temperature, Atmospheric Pressure, Humidity, Precipitation, Wind Speed, Wind Direction, Solar Radiation and UVI. If not provided, we will use other relevant meteorologic information sources.

If you have any question, just contact us.

Feed Example (CSV format)

 #ID: ID_BEI_DC
 #City: Beijing
 #Station: Dongcheng
 #Name: 东城东四
 #Latitude: 39.929
 #Longitude: 116.417
 #Timezone: +0800
 Date,PM10,PM25,CO,Ozone,Sulphur Dioxide,Nitrogen Dioxide,AmbientTemperature,RelativeHumidity,WindDirection,WindSpeed,Pressure,RainGauge
 Unit,ug/m3,ug/m3,ppm,µg/m3,µg/m3,µg/m3,°C,%,°,m/s,hPa,mm
 10/29/2016 13:00,16,3,,58,10,3,32,66,200,3,1001,0
 10/29/2016 14:00,19,8,,57,9,4,32,64,197,2,1001,0
 10/29/2016 15:00,15,9,,52,47,17,30,72,190,2,1001,0
 10/29/2016 16:00,31,19,,52,34,17,30,75,191,2,1001,0
 10/29/2016 17:00,31,17,,49,49,19,29,75,194,1,1002,0
 10/29/2016 18:00,37,18,,45,55,25,29,73,183,1,1003,0
 10/29/2016 19:00,24,13,,40,21,19,29,80,65,1,1004,0
 10/29/2016 20:00,39,22,,44,4,16,28,85,7,1,1005,0
 10/29/2016 21:00,24,16,,43,3,7,28,85,10,1,1005,0

Feed Example (HTML format)

This is an example based on an HTML format (direct url: publishingdata/html/):
Station list:
Station IDCity or County NameStation NameLocal name (optional)Latitude/LongitudeTimezone (optional)
ID_BEI_DCBeijingDongcheng东城东四39.929/116.417+0800
ID_BEI_WPBeijingWest Park西城官园39.929/116.339+0800
ID_BEI_OPBeijingOlympic Park朝阳奥体中心39.982/116.397+0800
..................
  • The "Station ID" is the unique identifer for each station, and it can just be a number (eg ID8373), or the concatenation of station city and station name (eg. "Beijing/Dongcheng").
  • By default, the station will be available via the url /city/country-name/city-name/station-name.
  • The "Station Name" must use latin characters, so the optional "Local Name" can be provided to localize the webpage.

Real-time pollutant list:
Station IDPollutantUnitUpdate timeValueAveraging
ID_BEI_DCPM10mg/m32014/08/10 10:00:0027.81 hour
ID_BEI_DCPM25mg/m32014/08/10 10:00:0010.81 hour
ID_BEI_DCOzonemg/m32014/08/10 10:00:0015.21 hour
ID_BEI_DCOzonemg/m32014/08/10 10:00:0018.28 hours
ID_BEI_DCTemperatureCelcius2014/08/10 10:00:0022.31 hour
ID_BEI_WPPM10mg/m32014/08/10 10:00:0027.81 hour
ID_BEI_WPPM25mg/m32014/08/10 10:00:0010.81 hour
ID_BEI_WPSO2ppb2014/08/10 10:00:0015.21 hour
ID_BEI_WPHumidiy%2014/08/10 10:00:00881 hour
...............
  • The "Averaging" column is use to specify the duration of the value. The most common averaging is 1 hour. It is also the prefered one, as our backend system will automatically do the 8 hour averagin computation for the Ozone and Carbon Monoxyde.
  • In the case the readings are provided more freqently than every hour (for instance every 30 minutes or 10 minutes), you can either provide the raw readings for the given period, or just the hourly averaging: Our back-end system will anyway process data even between the hour.

Feed Example (JSON format)

This is an example based on JSON format (direct url: /publishingdata/json/) 
..

About the Air Quality and Pollution Measurement:

About the Air Quality Levels

AQIAir Pollution LevelHealth ImplicationsCautionary Statement (for PM2.5)
0 - 50 Good Air quality is considered satisfactory, and air pollution poses little or no risk None
51 -100 Moderate Air quality is acceptable; however, for some pollutants there may be a moderate health concern for a very small number of people who are unusually sensitive to air pollution. Active children and adults, and people with respiratory disease, such as asthma, should limit prolonged outdoor exertion.
101-150 Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups Members of sensitive groups may experience health effects. The general public is not likely to be affected. Active children and adults, and people with respiratory disease, such as asthma, should limit prolonged outdoor exertion.
151-200 Unhealthy Everyone may begin to experience health effects; members of sensitive groups may experience more serious health effects Active children and adults, and people with respiratory disease, such as asthma, should avoid prolonged outdoor exertion; everyone else, especially children, should limit prolonged outdoor exertion
201-300 Very Unhealthy Health warnings of emergency conditions. The entire population is more likely to be affected. Active children and adults, and people with respiratory disease, such as asthma, should avoid all outdoor exertion; everyone else, especially children, should limit outdoor exertion.
300+ Hazardous Health alert: everyone may experience more serious health effects Everyone should avoid all outdoor exertion

To know more about Air Quality and Pollution, check the wikipedia Air Quality topic or the airnow guide to Air Quality and Your Health.

For very useful health advices of Beijing Doctor Richard Saint Cyr MD, check www.myhealthbeijing.com blog.


Usage Notice: All the Air Quality data are unvalidated at the time of publication, and due to quality assurance these data may be amended, without notice, at any time. The World Air Quality Index project has exercised all reasonable skill and care in compiling the contents of this information and under no circumstances will the World Air Quality Index project team or its agents be liable in contract, tort or otherwise for any loss, injury or damage arising directly or indirectly from the supply of this data.



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