Air Quality Data Sources

This chapter describes the methodology and data sources used for the air quality assessments presented in the previous chapter. The State of Global Air reportState of Global Air Report is presumably the most complete source of information available about the current state of air quality in Southeast Asia. It provides a comprehensive analysis of air quality levels and trends, as well as associated health impacts, for each country. It characterizes PM2.5 and O3 concentrations at a spatial resolution useful for informed action by combining ambient concentrations measured by ground-level monitors, data retrieved from multiple satellite instruments, and the outputs of chemical transport models. Its results are used to estimate exposure population-weighted average concentrations, as well as the associated health damages, mortality riskMortality risk, and monetary cost. However, the limited knowledge on the characteristics of local air pollution, the small number of air quality monitoringAir quality monitoring stations, reduced satellite sampling due to frequent overcast skies, and the representativeness of the chemical transport models’ algorithms for the region’s conditions all jeopardize the estimates’ accuracy.