Abstract

The average adult breathes 13,000 liters of air each day, making air quality a critical public health issue. Yet, air is essentially invisible, making a qualitative assessment of air quality nearly impossible for the average citizen. EPA supports an extensive air quality monitoring network, operated by State, local, tribal, and other federal agencies, to measure air quality. EPA also created the Air Quality Index (AQI), a numerical index that takes into account many common air pollutants, using their concentrations, along with targeted health messages, to inform the public about air quality and its effects on human health. The EPA AIRNow real-time data system was created to combine both the extensive monitoring networks across the nation and the simple, health-based AQI. AIRNow offers hourly air quality data, maps, and forecasts, all presented in the five colors of the AQI. With the advent of Google Maps and Google Earth, the AIRNow team began to explore making use of KML as another way to offer AQI information. In May 2007, EPA publicly released an AIRNow KML folder: http://airnow.gov/index.cfm?action=google_earth.main. The folder contains three KML files with information for nearly 300 US Cities: the current AQI value, today's forecast maximum AQI, and tomorrow's forecast maximum AQI. These files are automatically updated each hour, as new data and forecasts come into the AIRNow Data Management Center. Thus, these KML offerings are unique in that they represent the very latest available air quality information. EPA hopes to continue exploring uses of the ubiquitous Google Earth and Google Maps clients.