Using data received from satellites and monitoring stations positioned in cities, AirVisual Earth analyses air pollution levels in real time. It can be consulted online and is accessible to everyone. A single click is all it takes to find out what we are breathing.
The Feast of the Immaculate Conception holiday that has just passed brought bad news for air quality in our cities. Smog levels are extremely high and many regional capitals have exceeded the legal limits for PM10 fine particulate matter, as well as the permitted number of days of exceedance — that is, 35 days per year of daily PM10 levels above 50 micrograms per cubic metre. According to data from Legambiente, updated to 6 December, among the worst cities is Turin with 62 days of exceedances, Frosinone with 59, Venice with 53, Milan with 52, Padova with 50.
If this news no longer surprises us — sadly — the new development on the subject of air pollution is that from today we will be able to independently monitor fine particulate matter levels, not only in our own cities, but across the entire world. This is made possible by AirVisual Earth, the first online air pollution map accessible to everyone. It is a project by an international group of researchers led by Yann Boquillod which, combining satellite data with data from monitoring stations distributed across 6,000 cities worldwide, gives us a real-time picture of air pollution levels across the entire planet and informs us, via the app, of air quality forecasts up to 3 days ahead. The aim of the map, which monitors values of ultra-fine PM2.5 particulate matter, is to "make smog visible" and offer a real perception of it, in order to make people more aware of the dangers arising from air pollution, which, according to the European Environment Agency, causes 500,000 deaths every year in Europe alone and 1.6 million in China.
Consulting the map is easy: simply go to the website and a three-dimensional representation of the Earth will appear. Click on the point of the globe you are interested in to zoom in on the map and receive all the information. The level of smog is indicated by different colours ranging from blue to red. Wind currents that affect air pollution are also shown in real time. Finally, through the website, it is also possible to purchase a small home monitoring station that can be placed inside and outside the home and whose data can be shared to contribute to environmental monitoring.
