Key benefits of Heatmaps:
- Intuitive visualisation of daily AQI and corresponding pollutants.
- Select different AQI bands for consistency and regulatory alignment.
- Exportable format as JPEG for easy onward reporting and presentation use.
- Adaptive time periods, with flexible views from 1 week to 1 year.
- Quickly identify high-pollution days and the pollutants driving the exceedance.
- Provide clear, evidence-based insights to councillors, public health directors, and community groups.
- Benchmark local air quality against standards and demonstrate compliance or areas of concern.
- NO2, o2, PM10 and PM2.5 are available for analysis
This helps by:
- Current pollutant concentration data is complex and time-consuming to analyse. This is quick and easy
- Difficult to clearly communicate findings to non-technical audiences. This makes it very easy to visualise
Understanding the Heatmap: Daily AQI Values
The Heatmap provides a quick visual overview of air quality patterns across days.
Each cell represents a single day, coloured according to the Air Quality Index (AQI).
How Time Averages Affect the Heatmap
The Heatmap displays AQI values based on the time average you select. The available options typically include:
- 1-hour average
- 8-hour rolling average
- Daily average
What the Heatmap Shows
For each day, the Heatmap highlights the highest AQI value recorded for the selected time average.
For example:
- If 1-hour is selected, the Heatmap shows the worst 1-hour AQI that occurred that day.
- If 8-hour is selected, it shows the highest 8-hour rolling average for that day.
- If Daily is selected, it shows that day’s overall daily average AQI.
This approach ensures you see the peak exposure level for the chosen averaging period, helping you understand both short-term peaks and longer-term conditions.
Enjoy!