Ann Arbor Launches Air Quality Map and Alert System
The City of Ann Arbor Office of Sustainability and Innovations (OSI) is announcing a partnership with Clarity Movement (Clarity), the manufacturers of its city-wide network of 10 air quality monitors, to launch a new map displaying the current air quality index (AQI) at each of 10 monitoring locations. The new map can be found at www.a2gov.org/airquality and features a way to sign up for email alerts when AQI reaches an “unhealthy” level.
Each of the 10 Clarity air quality monitors installed in Ann Arbor is entirely solar-powered and measures both fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and nitrogen dioxide, two of the most common air pollutants. Two of the monitors also feature a weather station that measures temperature, relative humidity and wind speed and direction. An ozone monitor is also planned for installation later this year.
The AQI, which is the reporting index used by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is calculated using the individual concentrations of major pollutants (including ozone, particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide), with the pollutant at the highest concentration determining the value of the AQI. AQI values range from 0 to 500, with higher values representing greater levels of air pollution. These values are divided into six different levels of AQI (an AQI of 1, for example, corresponds to AQI values between 0-50 and is considered "good" air quality, while an AQI of six corresponds to AQI values above 301 and is considered "hazardous."). To learn more about the AQI and what each level means for your health, visit the EPA’s AQI webpage.
Each colored dot on the newly launched map represents one of our air quality monitors, and the color of the dot indicates the current AQI level at that monitoring location, as shown in the key at the top left corner of the map. Clicking on a dot will open a sidebar showing more information about the AQI at that location, including which pollutant is determining the AQI value. To sign up for email alerts when AQI at a particular monitoring location reaches level 4 (“unhealthy”), simply click on the dot to open the sidebar and then click the bell icon next to the name of the monitoring location.
OSI notes, clean, healthy air is critical to ensuring the community’s resilience, and the City of Ann Arbor’s A2ZERO Plan includes an action to “implement sensors to monitor heat [and] air quality.” Research has linked air pollutants such as ozone and particulate matter to lung and heart disease, increased asthma rates and other health problems. OSI adds, in the local community, the primary sources of these air pollutants include emissions from internal combustion engines (e.g., tailpipe emissions from cars), emissions from power plants, and emissions from indoor and outdoor appliances that run on fuels such as natural gas, diesel, propane and gasoline. In addition, climate change is negatively impacting air quality by causing more extreme heat days, which both drives up cooling needs — and power plant emissions — and creates the conditions for the formation of ground level ozone. Climate change, OSI continues, is also contributing to more frequent and intense wildfires, which are associated with increases in particulate matter pollution.
To learn more about OSI’s air quality monitoring work, visit www.a2gov.org/airquality or email Sean Reynolds, OSI senior analyst, at sreynolds@a2gov.org. To learn more about the city’s A2ZERO carbon neutrality plan, which supports local air quality monitoring work and dozens of other programs to advance the city’s goal of achieving a just transition to community-wide carbon neutrality by 2030, visit www.a2zero.org.
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Media Contact:
Sean Reynolds, Office of Sustainability and Innovations, Senior Analyst, sreynolds@a2gov.org