Airdata

Airdata is the collection of measurements and datasets that describe the atmosphere’s composition, properties, and dynamics. It includes observations from ground-based air quality monitoring networks, remote sensing from satellites and aircraft, outputs from atmospheric models, and derived products such as air quality indices and trend analyses. Airdata supports public health assessments, environmental policy, weather and climate research, and urban planning.

Key data types include particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10), ground-level ozone (O3), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2), carbon monoxide (CO), and greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2); along with meteorological variables like temperature, humidity, and wind, and aerosol properties such as optical depth. Data originate from national and international networks, satellite missions, and research campaigns.

Common sources and platforms include national monitoring networks (for example, U.S. EPA AQS; European Air Quality e-Reporting), international programs (World Meteorological Organization Global Atmospheric Watch), and satellite missions (MODIS, OMI, Sentinel-5P/TROPOMI). Open data portals and APIs from Copernicus, NASA Earthdata, OpenAQ, and similar initiatives enable programmatic access to raw and derived products.

Applications of airdata include regulatory compliance, health risk assessments, epidemiological studies, climate research, and urban planning. Data are published in formats such as CSV, NetCDF, and HDF5, with metadata and quality assurance indicators.

Challenges include uneven spatial and temporal coverage, sensor calibration and data quality, biases in low-cost sensors, and interoperability across datasets. The field is moving toward integrated systems that fuse ground observations, satellite retrievals, and models to deliver real-time air information and decision-support tools.