Addressing Discontinuity in Air Quality Alerts and Messaging

Recently, big data and sensor companies have emerged aiming to develop global solutions for characterizing air quality. Air quality information is being disseminated to more consumers as new or updated components of weather mobile and web applications. These providers often use machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) to combine large data sets including regulatory and non-regulatory measurements, satellite data, model outputs, and other relevant big data sets (e.g. meteorology, traffic, health). However, these new approaches have created challenges for various local and state agencies when models, sensor measurements, or data fusion products developed by the private sector conflict with regulatory monitoring data communicated through the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) AirNow system. On June 12-13^th, 2019 EPA hosted a two-day workshop titled “Air Quality Exchange: Delivering High Value Air Quality Information to the Public”. The purpose of the meeting was to convene a small group of key stakeholders – EPA, the private sector (including big data management companies and sensor developers), State and local agencies, and other federal agencies (NOAA, DOS, USFS, and NASA) – to discuss the increasing amount and variety of air quality information being shared by various public and private entities. Participants concluded that confusion over air quality information exists because data is being generated for different purposes, needs, and users. This presentation will discuss common themes that arose during the discussion including a need to standardize air quality terminology (e.g. current conditions, real-time air quality, air quality alert, air quality action day, Air Quality Index (AQI), etc.), development of strategies to characterize uncertainty for different sources of data on varying temporal and spatial scales, expanding the conversation to include more stakeholders – including members of the American Meteorological Society, and next steps moving forward. It will also share results from a one-month intensive assessment of the similarities and differences in air quality information in the United States presented through publicly available websites and apps.