Reference · built on requestCommons signalAir, water & environment

Air Quality Health Index (AQHI)

Hourly AQHI observations and twice-daily forecasts for Canadian communities from Environment and Climate Change Canada.

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About

The Air Quality Health Index is a 1 to 10+ scale published by Environment and Climate Change Canada with Health Canada and provincial and municipal agencies. It combines ground-level ozone, particulate matter, and nitrogen dioxide into one number with a health-risk category: Low, Moderate, High, or Very High. Observations and forecasts are issued per community and identified by a five-letter CGNDB code.

The data reaches you three ways: the GeoMet-OGC-API collections aqhi-observations-realtime, aqhi-forecasts-realtime, and aqhi-stations; GeoJSON files on the HPFX server; and CSV and XML files on MSC Datamart under dd.weather.gc.ca/today/air_quality/aqhi/.

An operator reads the current index and the next forecast for the communities where your buildings, crews, or guests are, and proposes a ventilation setting, a shift notice, or a brief for your approval.

This is a reference listing. It documents what Fibric would read from Air Quality Health Index (AQHI) 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

  • AQHI observations per community: location_id, observation_datetime, aqhi, and a latest flag, from aqhi-observations-realtime
  • AQHI forecasts per community with publication_datetime and forecast_datetime, from aqhi-forecasts-realtime
  • Community and station lists with CGNDB codes, from aqhi-stations and aqhi_station.geojson
  • Hourly GeoJSON observation files and twice-daily forecast files on the HPFX server, by region: atl, ont, pnr, pyr, que
  • Real-time CSV observation files holding the last 7 days, plus monthly CSV files, on MSC Datamart
  • Chemical species forecast data from numerical air quality models in the forecast/model/csv directories

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

  • Close the outdoor-air damper on a smoke day

    When the AQHI for a building's community reaches High, Indoor Air proposes a reduced outside-air setting and a filter check, and Economizer Check holds free cooling until the index falls. You approve; a receipt records the setting and the index that prompted it.

    With Indoor Air, Economizer Check

  • Warn outdoor crews before the forecast turns

    Severe Weather Notice reads the twice-daily AQHI forecast for each site and drafts a notice to outdoor teams when tomorrow's category is High or Very High. Nothing is sent until a supervisor approves.

    With Severe Weather Notice

  • Put the index in the morning brief

    Morning Brief lists each site's current AQHI and next forecast beside the day's schedule, so managers see which locations face a poor-air day before it starts.

    With Morning Brief

Requirements

  • The five-letter CGNDB community codes for the places you care about
  • Attribution as the ECCC Data Servers End-use Licence requires, for example "Data Source: Environment and Climate Change Canada"
  • For systematic real-time retrieval, an AMQPS subscription to MSC Datamart rather than polling directory listings
Authentication
No key. MSC Datamart and GeoMet-OGC-API are open HTTPS services; the MSC usage policy asks for a meaningful HTTP User-Agent header on every request.

Limits

  • Quebec has not authorized publication of its air quality data as AQHI, so the que observation directory is empty
  • The index is calculated from real-time observations without quality-control checks
  • Individual pollutant concentrations are held by provinces and territories; ECCC does not provide them through this feed
  • The usage policy names 86,400 requests per day as the point to contact MSC; heavier use can be limited or revoked

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.

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Questions and answers

How often does the AQHI data update?
GeoJSON observation files are produced hourly at about 40 minutes past the hour. Public forecast files are issued twice a day, at about 6 am and 5 pm local time. Real-time CSV files are also produced hourly and hold the last 7 days.
Does this feed include Quebec?
Not as AQHI. Quebec has not authorized publication of its air quality data in AQHI form, so the que observation directory is empty. Quebec and the City of Montreal distribute some of their data through AirNow instead.
What licence covers the data?
The Environment and Climate Change Canada Data Servers End-use Licence, version 2.1.1. It is worldwide, royalty-free, and allows commercial use. You must acknowledge the source, for example "Data Source: Environment and Climate Change Canada".
Ask about Air Quality Health Index (AQHI)

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 Environment and Climate Change Canada, Meteorological Service of Canada (api.weather.gc.ca, dd.weather.gc.ca). 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