
World air pollution map - gnocchi
https://air.plumelabs.com/
======
cmsmith
Can we get a scale bar? or legend? and what is being plotted here? and where
does the data come from? what's the difference between the contours and the
dots?

Clicking the big dots just takes me to a completely different page that
doesn't have that much more information. I'd expect a popup on the map that
tells me what the color/size of the dot means.

~~~
sdm
Also the lack of differentiation between PM10 and PM2.5 numbers is very
unhelpful. What's actually being measured? Just saying PM isn't useful. Plus,
the scale only goes to 150 -- LOL, I'm in China, a scale that only goes 150 is
useless. Finally, for the activities, what's the difference between "take
care" and "take it easy"?

~~~
adventured
The 600 micrograms per cubic meter type readings that have occurred in China
or India, don't correlate to this site's scale.

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adorable
I am David, one of Plume Labs' founders. Thank you for all your feedback!

At Plume Labs we build tools to help people fend off pollution. This starts
with an urban weather report (the Plume Air Report) that tells you when
pollution will be high for a few hours or more in your city, and what you can
do about it – timing your run, biking, activities with children – to take back
control of your environment.

The map discussed here is a near realtime visualization of air pollution
levels worldwide. The colors and the Plume Index are based on WHO
recommendations. (Blue corresponds to levels below the W.H.O. yearly
recommendations, light blue is below the W.H.O. daily recommendations etc.)
The map takes into account the main pollutants (NO2, O3, PM10, PM2.5) and is
based on measurements made in 11,000 monitoring stations worldwide along with
air quality models for the areas that are not covered by monitoring stations.

More details as well as pollution predictions are available on the mobile
version of the Plume Air Report

iOS => [https://itunes.apple.com/en/app/plume-air-report-
pollution/i...](https://itunes.apple.com/en/app/plume-air-report-
pollution/id950289243?mt=8)

Android =>
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.plumelabs....](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.plumelabs.air)

We try to make the air we breathe more transparent, and we hope you find it
useful!

~~~
dstyrb
It's a very interesting project and quite attractive.

However as others mentioned it would be useful to see some sort of scale for
the dots, scale for the colors, and specifics on those numbers. For example, I
have no idea what "Blue corresponds to levels below the W.H.O. yearly
recommendations, light blue is below the W.H.O. daily recommendations etc."
means... Does that mean "In one day at a Blue dot you will breathe in a whole
year's worth of particulates, while at a light blue dot for one day you will
breathe in one day's worth of particulates?"

As it stands, I will stick with aqicn.org for my Chinese pollution forecast
simply because it has much more, more specific, information for me --
including intra-city maps. It would be more useful to me if there was perhaps
a radio button where I could change between PM2.5 and NO2 for example.

It is very cool to see this on a worldwide scale though. And don't US
embassies have public air quality data that you can scrape to fill out things
like Africa? Or is that just US embassies in China...?

Anyways, thanks for your efforts.

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aries1980
I cycle from East London to Oxford Street every day, I found Plumelabs' data
very strange: the air on the London Oxford street (the most polluted street:
[http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/air-pollution-in-
lo...](http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/air-pollution-in-londons-
oxford-street-has-already-breached-the-legal-limit-for-the-whole-
of-2015-in-9960277.html)) is better than the Vienna's average, which is
considered to one of the cleanest city in Europe
([http://www.euronews.com/2015/03/31/how-does-your-city-
rank-i...](http://www.euronews.com/2015/03/31/how-does-your-city-rank-in-
european-air-pollution-survey/)). My nose tells the opposite.

~~~
stinos
Try checking other maps like
[http://aqicn.org/map/europe/#@g/50.9419/4.5137/9z](http://aqicn.org/map/europe/#@g/50.9419/4.5137/9z)?
Also there was a rather detailed map I saw just a week ago, displaying
something like 'average decrease in life expectancy due to combined air
pollution' but I cannot find it anymore. It looked really depressing btw.

~~~
aries1980
Thanks for the link!

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farresito
I've always liked this one:
[http://aqicn.org/map/europe/](http://aqicn.org/map/europe/) It's available
for all continents.

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11thEarlOfMar
This article has a _little_ information on Plume:

[http://www.treehugger.com/health/worlds-first-global-real-
ti...](http://www.treehugger.com/health/worlds-first-global-real-time-air-
pollution-map-app-launched.html)

"The map integrates some half a million data points each day from 11,000
environmental stations across the world,.."

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aselzer
How is there significantly less particulate matter and therefore less are
quality in Cologne and Dortmund, which are located in a very densely populated
area with a lot of traffic, than in Vienna?

[http://aqicn.org/map/europe/](http://aqicn.org/map/europe/) tends to only
shows areas where PM2.5 is even measured as polluted, so I guess this might be
inaccurate due to a lack of sensors in some areas, falsely believing they are
less polluted.

You can easily see this by just looking at the air quality reports in Vienna:
[http://aqicn.org/map/europe/#@g/48.183/16.4118/12z](http://aqicn.org/map/europe/#@g/48.183/16.4118/12z)

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arrayjumper
What is the source for the data?

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mynegation
I get French language interface when I click Toronto or Ottawa and English one
for Montreal, with no visible button for switching. They got it backwards.

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ljegou
The large circles often mask the little ones. No legend, no symbol scale, no
color scale. That's not how you do thematic cartography.

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analytically
UI sucks. This is how you do it:
[http://aqicn.org/city/france/limousin/limoges/aine/](http://aqicn.org/city/france/limousin/limoges/aine/)

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simeondd
Interesting map. Also a good thing that my country Bulgaria isn't there as
probably the pollution index will be over 100.

~~~
ashray
Is it really that bad in Sofia? I checked it out on aqicn earlier and it
looked alright there.

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techaddict009
How about easy selection of city based on country? This map based selection is
bit uneasy to use.

~~~
techaddict009
Sorry its there below maps which I couldnt find at first.

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StronglyTyped
Any policy to reduce carbon emissions that does not include Asia is a scam to
take your money.

~~~
exabrial
This is so true. It's so polluted and smoggy, there's a constant fog about
when you walk around that never goes away. India and China are driving the
climate change disaster, not the USA.

