AMET-AQ: North American Air Quality Observation Data, 2000-2024

Observation data from 12 monitoring networks including AERONET, AQS, CASTNET, and IMPROVE have been made available for the years 2000 through 2024 from the CMAS Center Data Warehouse. The dataset includes NetCDF files of hourly observed values from AQS for creating overlays in VERDI visualization software. It was harvested by ODUM and last updated on October 12, 2025.

Use Cases

• Evaluate air quality model performance based on multi-network observational data.
• Create observational overlays for atmospheric visualizations based on NetCDF files compatible with VERDI software.
• Analyze long-term trends in atmospheric constituents based on data spanning from 2000 to 2024.
• Compare air quality measurements across different monitoring networks like AQS, CASTNET, and IMPROVE.

Strengths

• Data spans 25 years from 2000 to 2024, providing a long-term record.
• Aggregates observations from 12 distinct monitoring networks.
• Includes hourly AQS data formatted for direct use in visualization software.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The 2024 AQS Hourly data is noted as incomplete, available only until September 2024.

Provenance

Source

CMAS Center Data Warehouse

Collection Method

Aggregated from 12 monitoring networks.

Time Range

2000 through 2024

Freshness

Last updated 2025-10-12 16:30:15; freshness should be verified.

Geography

North America