The Institute for Transport Studies at the University of Leeds has launched its openair project. The 3-year openair project is funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) with additional funding from Defra and several local authorities.

The project aims to make innovative, open-source data analysis tools available for free to the air quality community. These tools are designed for the analysis of air pollution data and dispersion model output. The underlying theme of the project is that considerably more useful information can be gleaned from air quality data using tools specifically designed for the purpose than is usually the case. Many of these tools would normally require specialist visualisation or statistical software but have been made available in the highly developed open-source statistical software called R.

In time the tools will be made available as a web service through the LAQN web site, providing local authorities and others with enhanced capabilities to better understand and interpret local pollution measurements through a straightforward and user-friendly web interface.

The website at openair-project website provides more details on the project and a pre-release version of the openair package that users can test ahead of its final release in October 2011. The project will be continuously developed over the next few years and we are keen to receive user feedback to ensure the tools are of maximum benefit to the community.

Contact: David Carslaw ( d.c.carslaw@its.leeds.ac.uk)

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Item date 12/06/2009