Google and Aclima have collected 100M air pollution and greenhouse gas measurements

Google’s Project Air View, launched in 2015 by Google and Aclima, has reached a new milestone of more than 100 million air pollution and greenhouse gas measurements collected globally since the research phase began.

The companies made the announcement ahead of the European Union’s Green Week and are kicking off the launch of Air View in the City of Dublin, Ireland. Aclima air pollution and greenhouse gas measurement and analysis technology integrated with Google’s first all-electric Street View car — a Jaguar I-PACE — will produce hyperlocal air quality insights for the Dublin City Council as part of its Smart Dublin program.

Aclima is Google Street View’s global partner for sensing air quality with Street View vehicles, which can deliver a block-by-block view of air pollution. Aclima provides the sensor instrumentation, data, analytics infrastructure, and scientific expertise to support high-quality delivery and interpretation from the mobile platform.

Aclima recently raised $40 million and announced it is a Public Benefit Corporation, meaning its charter is to serve the public as well as shareholders.

Aclima’s mobile air monitoring platform measures and analyzes nitrogen dioxide (NO2), nitric oxide (NO), carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO), fine particulate matter (PM2.5), and ozone (O3), along with geospatial and meteorological data within dozens of Street View vehicles as they traverse cities around the world.

Google makes this data available to researchers and city officials through Environmental Insights Explorer (EIE), a free tool that provides thousands of cities with actionable data and insights to reduce their emissions.

Building on more than three years of research collaboration with Aclima mobile laboratories, Google announced plans in 2018 to expand air quality mapping with Aclima in Street View cars around the globe.

In 2020, Aclima and Google made a massive air pollution dataset freely available to the scientific community. Over the course of four years, the companies had together generated and aggregated more than 42 million hyperlocal air quality measurements throughout California. This dataset has helped researchers advance their understanding of hyperlocal air pollution and its impacts on human health. Peer-reviewed research publications include Environmental Science & Technology and the Environmental Health Journal.

As an example of this work, in June 2020 two studies compared mobile and stationary air quality monitoring and mapping in Atmospheric Measurement Techniques and Environmental Science and Technology using Aclima and Google research data from Los Angeles, San Francisco, the northern San Joaquin Valley, and West Oakland, California.

Such studies have advanced scientific understanding of the way air pollution varies over space and time and how potential exposure correlates with disproportionate health impacts.

If you’re a scientist interested in accessing Google and Aclima research data, you can apply here.