This is the main data ingest pipeline for the OpenAQ project.

Starting with index.js, there is an ingest mechanism to gather global air quality measurements from a variety of sources. This is currently run every 10 minutes and saves all unique measurements to a database.

openaq-api powers the API and more information on the data format can be found in openaq-data-format.

For more info see the OpenAQ-Fetch documentation index.

To run the API locally, you will need both Node.js and PostgreSQL installed.

Install necessary Node.js packages by running

npm install

Make sure you have a PostgreSQL database available (with PostGIS extension) and have the DB settings in knexfile.js.

Now you can get started with:

node index.js --help

For a full development quick start (with database setup etc.), please see the dev-quick-start doc.

For production deployment, you will need to have certain environment variables set as in the table below

For full list of environment variables and process arguments, see environment documentation.

If you want to push results to an S3 bucket as well for further processing, the environment variable SAVE_TO_S3 should be set to the value true. Additionally, you have to set the following environment variables (or be running in a process with a suitable IAM role):

The measurements will be stored using the structure bucket_name/fetches/yyyy-mm-dd/unixtime.ndjson for each fetch.

To confirm that everything is working as expected, you can run the tests with

npm test

To test an individual adapter, you can use something like:

node index.js --dryrun --source 'Beijing US Embassy'

For a more detailed description of the command line options available, use: node index.js --help

Deployment is handled automatically via Travis on the master branch and is deployed to Amazon's ECS.

This section lists the key criteria for air quality data aggregated onto the platform. A full explanation can be accessed here. OpenAQ is an ever-evolving process that is shaped by its community: your feedback and questions are actively invited on the criteria listed in this section.

(1) Data must be of one of these pollutant types: PM10, PM2.5, sulfur dioxide (SO2), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), ozone (O3), and black carbon (BC).

(2) Data must be from an official-level outdoor air quality source, as defined as data produced by a government entity or international organization. We do not, at this stage, include data from low-cost, temporary, and/or indoor sensors. 

(3) Data must be ‘raw’ and reported in physical concentrations on their originating site. Data cannot be shared in an 'Air Quality Index' or equivalent (e.g. AQI, PSI, API) format.

(4) Data must be at the ‘station-level,’ associable with geographic coordinates, not aggregated into a higher (e.g. city) level.

(5) Data must be from measurements averaged between 10 minutes and 24 hours.

There are a lot of ways to contribute to this project, more details can be found in the contributing guide.