Reference · built on requestCommons signalAir, water & environment

UK-AIR Sensor Observation Service

UK air pollution measurements from Defra's UK-AIR monitoring stations through an OGC Sensor Observation Service.

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About

Defra publishes the UK-AIR Sensor Observation Service as a machine-readable access point for air pollution measurements hosted on UK-AIR. It is built on a 52°North SOS implementation and supports OGC SOS 1.0.0, 2.0.0, and the European air quality e-Reporting data model (AQD 1.0.0). The measurements are funded by Defra, the Scottish Government, the Welsh Government, and the Department of the Environment Northern Ireland.

An operator on Fibric issues GetObservation requests for the stations and pollutants near your sites and turns the O&M readings into hourly outdoor context for ventilation decisions.

This is a reference listing. It documents what Fibric would read from UK-AIR Sensor Observation Service and what it could propose, based on the publisher's published interfaces. Fibric builds it under a managed deployment when you request it; selecting it here installs nothing.

Inputs

  • Service description and offerings through GetCapabilities at uk-air.defra.gov.uk/data/sos/service
  • Sensor readings encoded in Observations & Measurements 2.0 through GetObservation and GetObservationById
  • Which pollutants and periods each station holds, through GetDataAvailability
  • Sensor descriptions in SensorML 1.0.1 through DescribeSensor
  • Station features in GML 3.2.1 through GetFeatureOfInterest
  • Raw result blocks through GetResultTemplate and GetResult
  • Pollutants identified by Eionet air quality vocabulary URIs, from SO2 and NO2 to PM10 and PM2.5

Proposed actions

Read-only. This feed informs operators; it changes nothing.

Proposed actions are target capabilities. Every action runs propose-first and needs a validated deployment and the appropriate permissions.

What you can build

  • Adjust ventilation on high-pollution hours

    Read NO2 and PM2.5 from the nearest UK-AIR station each hour and propose a recirculation setting when outdoor levels climb. You approve the change; a receipt records the station and reading.

    With Indoor Air, CO2 Ventilation

  • Answer a comfort complaint with outdoor context

    When a tenant reports stuffy or smoky air, attach the local station's readings for that hour so the reply rests on a measurement rather than a guess.

    With Comfort Complaint

  • Put outdoor air in the morning brief

    Summarise overnight readings at the stations nearest each site and list any that crossed the thresholds you set.

    With Morning Brief

Requirements

  • The station identifiers or bounding box for the sites you care about
  • An SOS 2.0 client for the KVP, POX, SOAP, JSON, REST, or EXI binding
  • A parser for O&M 2.0 XML or the application/json response format
Authentication
None. GetCapabilities lists fees as NONE, and the service answers KVP GET and JSON POST requests without credentials.

Limits

  • The service is labelled a beta release and is aimed at developers, not desktop users
  • Transactional operations (InsertResultTemplate, InsertResult) are not implemented; the service is read-only
  • SOAP requests are not supported through the EXI binding
  • The SOS page states no update interval; it describes readings from in-situ stations reporting live

Access and pricing

Reference listing. Public feed access is separate from Fibric integration. If you request this feed, your quote covers the build, usage, and support.

Request UK-AIR Sensor Observation Service ↗

Questions and answers

Which SOS versions and bindings does UK-AIR support?
OGC SOS 1.0.0 and 2.0.0 plus the AQD 1.0.0 e-Reporting model. Bindings are KVP over HTTP GET, and SOAP, POX, JSON, and EXI over HTTP POST. A REST API is also supported. The Core, Enhanced, and Result Handling extensions are implemented; Transactional is not.
Do you need an API key?
No. GetCapabilities reports fees as NONE, and the about page describes an open machine-to-machine interface. Data are published under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Is the SOS meant for browsing data by hand?
No. Defra says it is not aimed at the general public or traditional desktop users and recommends the UK-AIR data archive for that. The SOS exists for developers and machine-to-machine transfer.
Ask about UK-AIR Sensor Observation Service

Ask about the capabilities and requirements in this listing.

For project-specific requirements, contact Fibric.

This Commons signal listing is developed, published, and supported by Fibric. It reads public data published by Defra UK-AIR (uk-air.defra.gov.uk). Upstream agencies and projects are the property of their respective owners, who are not affiliated with Fibric and do not sponsor or endorse this listing. Trademark policy