Remote Sensing Information Gateway

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Description

The Remote Sensing Information Gateway (RSIG) allows for quick and easy access to subsets of multi-terabyte environmental datasets pertaining to air quality, including satellite, modeled, and in-situ sensor data. RSIG can tap into a wide range of key environmental models and data, such as NASA’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Community Multi-scale Air Quality (CMAQ) model output, National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) biomass burning data, and ground station measurements from AIRNow and EPA’s Air Quality System (AQS). RSIG also enables users to integrate their selected datasets into a unified visualization.

RSIG renders each dataset and overlays them on a map of the selected region, automatically aligning information from various spatial and temporal scales into a unified visualization.

Questions this resource can help answer

What are spatial and temporal patterns in air quality from different air quality data sources?

How do I use this resource?

RSIG is an advanced tool that is intended to facilitate downloading and visualizing air quality data from multiple sources. You will need to download the appropriate version of the software. Within the software, you will need to select the data you wish to download and visualize (data tab). You can select from satellite, modeling, monitoring, and aircraft observations. You will need to select which model or monitor parameters you want to map, along with a date range. You then click “get data” to download from the source. You can display maps of individual hours or days, or click “play” under Timestep to see an animation over time. Data can be saved in a variety of formats in the “save” tab.

Pro tips

Some of the data links are not active. For example, RSIG is not able to pull PurpleAir data without a API key, which you have to obtain from PurpleAir and then modify the .ini file to add that key.

Resource information

Resource owner

Government

Format

Software

Backup URL

Update Frequency

Real-time

Geographic Coverage

Global, United States

Technical specifications

Methodology

Draws from multiple sources of air quality data including satellite, ground based monitors, aircraft observations, and modeling.

Sectors

Other Specifications

Requires knowledge of source air quality data, including parameter definitions, and temporal coverage.

Related resources

Model

GEOS-Chem

GEOS-Chem is an open?source global 3?D chemical transport model used to simulate atmospheric composition, including gases and aerosols, and their chemistry, transport, and deposition. The website provides documentation, installation and run instructions, tutorials, model version information, input datasets, and links to the user community and developer resources. Researchers use it to run simulations for air quality, climate, and biogeochemical cycling studies, and to contribute improvements back to the shared codebase.

Model

Hazardous Air Pollutant Exposure Model (HAPEM)

EPA’s HAPEM (Hazardous Air Pollutant Exposure Model) is a human exposure model that estimates how people are exposed to outdoor-origin hazardous air pollutants as they move through different microenvironments (home, work, in transit, outdoors). Using ambient concentration inputs, population and activity-pattern data, and microenvironmental factors (e.g., infiltration indoors), HAPEM produces distributions of exposure for various population groups and is used in national? and regional?scale risk assessments such as the National Air Toxics Assessment.

AnalysisModelTool

Human Exposure Model (HEM)

EPA’s Human Exposure Model (HEM) is a probabilistic exposure assessment tool used to estimate how people are exposed to contaminants (often air pollutants, but not limited to them) through different pathways and microenvironments. It is designed to support human health risk assessments by translating environmental concentrations into population exposure distributions for specific pollutants, locations, and demographic groups. HEM uses information on contaminant levels, population characteristics, and time–activity patterns to produce quantitative estimates of average and high-end exposures suitable for regulatory analyses and comparative policy evaluations.

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Remote Sensing Information Gateway

Description

Questions this resource can help answer

How do I use this resource?

Pro tips

Resource information

Technical specifications

Related resources

GEOS-Chem

Hazardous Air Pollutant Exposure Model (HAPEM)

Human Exposure Model (HEM)

Google Air Quality

New Jersey Environmental Justice, Mapping, Assessment, and Protection Tool

What’s in My Community?

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