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METADATA

Schools Weather and Air Quality (SWAQ) – Quality Controlled Urban Dataset – Sydney (NSW)

Status of Data: on going
Update Frequency: periodic
Ver: 1.0
Security Classification: unclassified
Viewed: 0
Accessed: 0

Description

Schools Weather and Air Quality (SWAQ) is a citizen science project funded by the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science as part of its Inspiring Australia - Citizen Engagement Program. SWAQ is equipping public schools across Sydney with research-grade meteorology and air quality sensors, enabling students to collect and analyse research quality data through curriculum-aligned classroom activities. The network includes twelve automatic weather stations and seven automatic air quality stations, stretched from -33.5995° to -34.0421° latitude and from 150.6913° to 151.2708° longitude. The average spacing is 10.2 km and the average installation height is 2.5 m above ground level. Optimum site allocation was determined by undertaking a multi-criteria weighted overlay analysis to ensure data representativeness and quality. Six meteorological parameters (dry-bulb temperature, relative humidity, barometric pressure, rain, wind speed, and wind direction) and six air pollutants (SO2, NO2, CO, O3, PM2.5, and PM10) are recorded. Observations and metadata are available from September 2019 for WXT536 + AQT420 stations and from October 2019 for WXT536 stations (refer to Table 1 of the Dataset Guide), thus encompassing the Black Summer bushfire and the COVID-19 lockdown period. Data routinely undergo quality control, quality assurance and publication.

Credit
We at TERN acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Custodians throughout Australia, New Zealand and all nations. We honour their profound connections to land, water, biodiversity and culture and pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.
Department of Industry, Innovation and Science. Inspiring Australia - Citizen Engagement Program

Purpose
SWAQ data provides urban canopy layer observations of the intra-urban heterogeneity and inter-parameter dependency of all major urban climate and air quality variables, valuable across diverse urban disciplines. SWAQ stations are located where there are gaps in existing government networks, and focus on Sydney’s western suburbs, where the highest urbanization rate is taking place, to better inform future urban planning. Beyond research purposes, SWAQ is a citizen-centered network, conceived to promote valuable STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) skills among citizens and students.

Supplemental Information
For more information on variable names, formats, quality control and flagging systems, see "Dataset Guide & Glossary.pdf"

Lineage
All SWAQ sensors are installed: • in homogenous urban regions, without sections of anomalous variation in the regional urban makeup and aspect-ratio, and without large, concentrated heat/pollution sources or sinks; • in areas falling into the WMO Class 4 with no electromagnetic sources that could have distorted the transmission; • at a constant height of 2 - 3.5 m above ground level. Quality control includes continuity tests, fixed range tests (on both physical and instrumental limits), dynamic range and step tests (both performed on a monthly basis), internal consistency tests (on known atmospheric relations) and persistence tests. Data failing any of the above tests are flagged as described in the Supplemental Information. Two quality-controlled datasets are available: “YYYY-MM-DD_Raw.csv” where flags supplement but do not alter the original data and “YYYY-MM-DD_Cleaned.csv” that contains a ready-to-use cleaned dataset, as recommended by the SWAQ team.

Data Creation
Quality Assurance: Annual maintenance log
Quality Control: continuity tests, fixed range tests (on both physical and instrumental limits), dynamic range and step tests (both performed on a monthly basis), internal consistency tests (on known atmospheric relations) and persistence tests.

Temporal coverage

From 9/1/2019

Dates

Date modified

7/2/2021

Citation information

How to cite this collection:

Hart, M., Maharaj, A., Di Virgilio, G., Ulpiani, G. (2021): Schools Weather and Air Quality (SWAQ) – Quality Controlled Urban Dataset – Sydney (NSW). Version 1.0. Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network. (Dataset). https://portal.tern.org.au/metadata/TERN/f59ae00d-2017-48c1-911a-8400249f1088

Access data

This data can be accessed from the following websites
  • /attachment/f59ae00d-2017-48c1-911a-8400249f1088/2021-04-30_Cleaned.csv
  • /attachment/f59ae00d-2017-48c1-911a-8400249f1088/2021-04-30_Raw.csv
  • /attachment/f59ae00d-2017-48c1-911a-8400249f1088/Dataset_Guide__Glossary_JyvznNc.pdf
  • /attachment/f59ae00d-2017-48c1-911a-8400249f1088/SWAQ_METADATA.zip

Access metadata

Point-of-truth metadata URL

Rights and Licensing

CC-BY

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

TERN services are provided on an "as-is" and "as available" basis. Users use any TERN services at their discretion and risk. They will be solely responsible for any damage or loss whatsoever that results from such use including use of any data obtained through TERN and any analysis performed using the TERN infrastructure.
Web links to and from external, third party websites should not be construed as implying any relationships with and/or endorsement of the external site or its content by TERN.

Please advise any work or publications that use this data via the online form at https://www.tern.org.au/research-publications/#reporting
Please cite this dataset as {Author} ({PublicationYear}). {Title}. {Version, as appropriate}. Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network. Dataset. {Identifier}.

Spatial coverage

Keywords

Parameters
  • air temperature (Degree Celsius)
  • relative humidity (Percent Relative Humidity)
  • air pressure (Hectopascal)
  • rainfall rate (Millimetre Per Hour)
  • wind from direction (Degree)
  • wind speed (Metre per Second)
  • mass concentration of sulfur dioxide in air (Parts per million)
  • mass concentration of nitrogen dioxide in air (Parts per million)
  • mass concentration of carbon monoxide in air (Parts per million)
  • mass concentration of ozone in air (Parts per million)
  • mass fraction of pm10 aerosol in air (Microgram Per Cubic Metre)
  • mass fraction of pm2p5 aerosol in air (Microgram Per Cubic Metre)
Data Resolution
  • 1 minute - < 1 hour
GCMD Science
  • AIR QUALITY
  • AIR TEMPERATURE
  • PARTICULATE MATTER
  • CARBON MONOXIDE
  • NITROGEN OXIDES
  • TROPOSPHERIC OZONE
  • SULFUR DIOXIDE
  • RELATIVE HUMIDITY
  • RAIN
  • WILDFIRES
  • URBAN AREAS
  • LOCAL WINDS
  • Urban Heat Island
ANZSRC - FOR
  • Atmospheric sciences
  • Atmospheric composition, chemistry and processes
  • Climate change processes
  • Meteorology
  • Urban and regional planning
  • Other built environment and design
  • Climatology
Topic Categories
  • Climatology/meteorology/atmosphere
  • Environment
User Defined
  • urban climate
  • pollution
  • urban canopy monitoring
  • bushfire
  • COVID lockdown
  • urban heat
  • citizen science
  • intra-urban heterogeneity
  • urban pollution
  • ourdoor air quality

People and Organisation

AuthorsAuthors
  • Hart, Melissa
Co-authorsCo-authors
  • Maharaj, Angela
  • Di Virgilio, Giovanni
  • Ulpiani, Giulia
Point of ContactPoint of Contact
  • Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network
  • Hart, Melissa
PublisherPublisher
  • Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network
Distributor's OrganisationDistributor's Organisation
  • Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network

Publications

PublicationsPublications
  • Air quality impacts of the 2019-2020 black summer wildfires on Australian schools
  • Schools Weather and Air Quality SWAQ website
  • DOI in Zenodo

Data Quality

Data QualityData Quality
  • Data Quality Assessment Scope:
    Sensors and gateways are calibrated and tested by Vaisala in controlled conditions
  • Data Quality Assessment Result:
    Sensors and gateways come with independent test reports reporting the successful outcome of the calibration and testing

Related datasets

with matching subjects

Access data
  • /attachment/f59ae00d-2017-48c1-911a-8400249f1088/2021-04-30_Cleaned.csv
  • /attachment/f59ae00d-2017-48c1-911a-8400249f1088/2021-04-30_Raw.csv
  • /attachment/f59ae00d-2017-48c1-911a-8400249f1088/Dataset_Guide__Glossary_JyvznNc.pdf
  • /attachment/f59ae00d-2017-48c1-911a-8400249f1088/SWAQ_METADATA.zip
Contacts
  • Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network
  • Building 1019, 80 Meiers Rd
  • QLD 4068
  • Australia

Contact us

Physical & Mail Address
The University of Queensland
Long Pocket Precinct
Level 5, Foxtail Building #1019
80 Meiers Road
Indooroopilly QLD 4068 Australia

P (07) 3365 9097
E esupport@tern.org.au

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TERN is supported by the Australian Government through the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy, NCRIS.

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Version:5.1.1