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Import Continuous UK Air Quality Monitoring Data

Source: R/import_ukaq_measurements.R
import_ukaq_measurements.Rd

Imports continuous monitoring data from UK air quality networks. This function defaults to importing hourly data, but has options to instead return other common time periods.

Usage

import_ukaq_measurements(
  code,
  year,
  source = "ukaq",
  data_type = "hourly",
  pollutant = NULL,
  append_meteorology = TRUE,
  append_quality_flag = FALSE,
  append_metadata = FALSE,
  metadata_columns = c("site_type", "latitude", "longitude"),
  pivot = "wide",
  progress = NA,
  ...,
  .class = NULL
)

Arguments

code

Specific site codes to import.

required

code expects a vector of character values. It defines the specific sites to import will filter the result for specific sites based on their site codes, available through import_ukaq_meta(). Note that a mismatch between code and source may result in no data being imported.

year

A year, or range of years, from which to import data.

required

year expects a vector of integer values. It can be a single year (2020), a selection of specific years (c(2020, 2021, 2022)), or a range of years (2020:2025).

source

One or more UK Monitoring networks from which to import data.

default: "ukaq"

The default, "ukaq", will look for sites from any of the available networks. Any combination of "aurn", "aqe", "saqn", "waqn", "niaqn" or "lmam" will only import data from those specific monitoring networks. Note that a mismatch between code and source may result in no data being imported.

data_type

What type of summary should be returned?

default: "hourly"

import_ukaq_measurements() can return many different continuous measurement types. These are as follows:

  • "hourly": Hourly data (the default).

  • "daily": Daily average data.

  • "15_min": 15-minute average SO2 concentrations.

  • "8_hour": 8-hour rolling mean concentrations for O3 and CO.

  • "24_hour": 24-hour rolling mean concentrations for particulates.

  • "daily_max_8": Maximum daily rolling 8-hour maximum for O3 and CO.

pollutant

One or more pollutants for which to import data.

default: NULL

By default, all available pollutants are imported. pollutant allows any specific combination of the pollutants to be returned instead.

append_meteorology

Append modelled meteorology to the dataframe?

default: TRUE

Certain networks such as the AURN are accompanied by modelled meteorological data obtained from the WRF model (See https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/research/air-quality-modelling?view=modelling). Setting append_meteorology = FALSE will remove this, which may be useful if joining measured meteorological data sourced from elsewhere.

append_quality_flag

Append ratification indicators to the dataframe?

default: FALSE

If TRUE, additional _qc columns will be appended to the data which are TRUE if the data has been ratified and FALSE if it has not been. Specific ratification dates can be obtained from import_ukaq_meta().

append_metadata

Append site metadata to the dataframe?

default: FALSE

When TRUE, the resulting data.frame will have site metadata appended. The specific columns are selected using metadata_columns.

metadata_columns

Specific metadata columns to append to the data.frame.

default: c("site_type", "latitude", "longitude")

When append_metadata = TRUE, the columns selected here will be appended to the data. Columns names should match those in import_ukaq_meta(), excluding pollutant-specific columns (e.g., ratification date).

pivot

Should the dataframe be 'wide' or 'long'?

default: "wide"

There are two main ways to store air quality data; "long" (with 'pollutant' and 'value' columns) or "wide" (with each pollutant value being stored in its own column). pivot allows users to define which format they would prefer their data in.

progress

Show a progress bar?

default: NA

When TRUE, this function will print a progress bar to track individual files being imported. If FALSE this is suppressed. If NA, the default, the function will work out if a progress bar would be useful (i.e., if the function is being run in an interactive session and if more than one remote file is being accessed).

...

Not used.

.class

Signifier for the dataframe class.

default: NULL

ukaq functions, by default, will return tbl_dfs if the tibble package is installed, but will otherwise return data.frames. .class can override this behaviour, and takes either "tbl" or "df", which sets the return class to be tbl_df or data.frame respectively.

Value

a data.frame

References

With thanks to Trevor Davies and Ricardo Plc for preparing and hosting the data

Author

Jack Davison, David Carslaw