AirNow Current Conditions products

— last modified Jul 16, 2010 01:58 PM

aka Current Air Quality Conditions Map

Available Output

Output variables (as maps and monitor data), current conditions of:

The AirNow website is operated under guidance from the EPA. It is designed to provide the public and managers with information on current air quality conditions. The AirNow website is heavily used by the air regulatory community.
AirNow uses the AQI, a normalized index for measuring air quality conditions.
For PM2.5, the AQI is normalized so that a value of 100 means a 24-hour average PM2.5 value of 40 ug/m^3.
Data for the AirNow current conditions maps is derived from monitoring locations including many different types of monitors.
Monitoring data is voluntarily reported to AirNow. Specific monitoring data is available through the companion website AirNowTech. AirNowTech requires a login that is freely available to government employees.
NOTE: the AirNow site also has forecast conditions (both for individual sites and maps). These forecasts are individually contributed by the local air quality agencies. Each forecaster uses whatever tools they have to make their forecasts. Many of the forecasters that are often impacted by fire do try to incorporate fire information into their forecasts by using various smoke model predictions although which predictions are used will vary from place to place and from forecaster to forecaster. That said, forecasts do miss fires, particularly in places where fires impacts are less common or when fires are new.

The AirNow current conditions map shows the most recent interpolated map of air quality from all sources, including fire.
During periods of significant fire that is ongoing, the AirNow site can show the current level of smoke impact which may be useful in predicting or calibrating expected future impacts.
Note that small scale fires (such as Rx burns) can often be missed by the AirNow current and forecast conditions.
AQI values are only displayed categorically on AirNow. Categories are:

Good (green); Moderate (yellow); Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups (USG) (orange); Unhealthy (red); Very Unhealthy (pinkish); Hazardous (brown)

By using the select box within the portal, it can take you directly to the local map for your region.
This page will have a map of current conditions on the left, as well as a list of stations in the region on the right. The map and station data are color coded by AQI category.

Automated setting of your U.S. state location as determined from the lat/lon on the portal site is being developed.
A link between the WFDSS-AQ portal and the AirNow Tech site, including an integrated WFDSS login, is being developed. AirNow Tech has more quantitative tools aimed at air regulators and managers.