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

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.

Simple

Identification info

Date (Creation)
2021-05-31
Date (Publication)
2021-07-02
Date (Revision)
2025-12-10
Edition
1.0

Identifier

Title
DataCite
Codespace
http://dx.doi.org

Publisher

Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network
Building 1019, 80 Meiers Rd
Indooroopilly
QLD
4068
Australia
+61 7 3365 9097

Author

University of New South Wales - Hart, Melissa ()
High St, Kensington, New South Wales, 2052, Australia
Kensington
New South Wales
2052
Australia

Co-author

University of New South Wales - Maharaj, Angela ()
High St, Kensington, New South Wales, 2052, Australia
Kensington
New South Wales
2052
Australia

Co-author

University of New South Wales - Di Virgilio, Giovanni ()
High St, Kensington, New South Wales, 2052, Australia
Kensington
New South Wales
2052
Australia

Co-author

University of New South Wales - Ulpiani, Giulia ()
High St, Kensington, New South Wales, 2052, Australia
Kensington
New South Wales
2052
Australia
Website
https://www.tern.org.au/

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.
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.
Credit
Department of Industry, Innovation and Science. Inspiring Australia - Citizen Engagement Program
Status
On going

Point of contact

University of New South Wales - Hart, Melissa ()
High St, Kensington, New South Wales, 2052, Australia
High St
Kensington
New South Wales
2052
Australia
Topic category
  • Climatology, meteorology, atmosphere
  • Environment

Extent

N
S
E
W


Temporal extent

Time period
2019-09-01

Vertical element

Minimum value
0
Maximum value
0
Reference system type
Geodetic Geographic 3D
Title
Air quality impacts of the 2019-2020 black summer wildfires on Australian schools
Website
Air quality impacts of the 2019-2020 black summer wildfires on Australian schools

Related documentation

Title
Schools Weather and Air Quality SWAQ website
Website
Schools Weather and Air Quality SWAQ website

Related documentation

Title
DOI in Zenodo
Website
DOI in Zenodo

Related documentation

Maintenance and update frequency
Periodic
GCMD Science Keywords
  • AIR QUALITY
  • AIR TEMPERATURE
  • PARTICULATE MATTER
  • CARBON MONOXIDE
  • NITROGEN OXIDES
  • TROPOSPHERIC OZONE
  • SULFUR DIOXIDE
  • RELATIVE HUMIDITY
  • RAIN
  • WILDFIRES
  • URBAN AREAS
  • LOCAL WINDS
ANZSRC Fields of Research
  • Atmospheric sciences
  • Atmospheric composition, chemistry and processes
  • Climate change processes
  • Meteorology
  • Urban and regional planning
  • Other built environment and design
  • Climatology
TERN Parameter Vocabulary
  • 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
QUDT Units of Measure
  • Degree Celsius
  • Percent Relative Humidity
  • Hectopascal
  • Millimetre per Hour
  • Degree
  • Metre per Second
  • Parts per Million
  • Parts per Million
  • Parts per Million
  • Parts per Million
  • Microgram per Cubic Metre
  • Microgram per Cubic Metre
GCMD Horizontal Resolution Ranges
  • 10 km - < 50 km or approximately .09 degree - < .5 degree
GCMD Temporal Resolution Ranges
  • 1 minute - < 1 hour
Keywords (Discipline)
  • urban climate
  • air quality
  • pollution
  • urban canopy monitoring
  • bushfire
  • COVID lockdown
  • urban heat island
  • urban heat
  • citizen science
  • intra-urban heterogeneity
  • urban climate
  • urban pollution
  • urban heat island
  • ourdoor air quality

Resource constraints

Use limitation
The Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license allows others to copy, distribute, display, and create derivative works provided that they credit the original source and any other nominated parties. Details are provided at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
File name
88x31.png
File description
CCBy Logo from creativecommons.org
File type
png
Linkage
https://w3id.org/tern/static/cc-by/88x31.png

Title
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence
Alternate title
CC-BY
Edition
4.0
Website
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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

Resource constraints

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

Distribution Information

Distribution format
  • NetCDF

Distributor

Distributor

Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network
Building 1019, 80 Meiers Rd
Indooroopilly
QLD
4068
Australia
OnLine resource
/attachment/f59ae00d-2017-48c1-911a-8400249f1088/2021-04-30_Cleaned.csv

Distribution Information

Distribution format
  • NetCDF

Distributor

Distributor

Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network
Building 1019, 80 Meiers Rd
Indooroopilly
QLD
4068
Australia
OnLine resource
/attachment/f59ae00d-2017-48c1-911a-8400249f1088/2021-04-30_Raw.csv

Distribution Information

Distribution format
  • NetCDF

Distributor

Distributor

Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network
Building 1019, 80 Meiers Rd
Indooroopilly
QLD
4068
Australia
OnLine resource
/attachment/f59ae00d-2017-48c1-911a-8400249f1088/Dataset_Guide__Glossary_JyvznNc.pdf

Distribution Information

Distribution format
  • NetCDF

Distributor

Distributor

Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network
Building 1019, 80 Meiers Rd
Indooroopilly
QLD
4068
Australia
OnLine resource
/attachment/f59ae00d-2017-48c1-911a-8400249f1088/SWAQ_METADATA.zip

Distribution Information

Distribution format

Distributor

Distributor

Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network
Building 1019, 80 Meiers Rd, Indooroopilly, QLD, Australia, 4068
Indooroopilly
QLD
4068
Australia
OnLine resource
ro-crate-metadata.json

Data quality info

Hierarchy level
Dataset
Other
Sensors and gateways are calibrated and tested by Vaisala in controlled conditions

Report

Result

Statement
Sensors and gateways come with independent test reports reporting the successful outcome of the calibration and testing

Resource lineage

Statement
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.
Hierarchy level
Dataset

Process step

Description
Quality Assurance: Annual maintenance log

Process step

Description
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.

Reference System Information

Reference system identifier
EPSG/EPSG:4326

Reference system type
Geodetic Geographic 2D

Metadata

Metadata identifier
urn:uuid/f59ae00d-2017-48c1-911a-8400249f1088

Title
TERN GeoNetwork UUID

Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8

Point of contact

Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network
Building 1019, 80 Meiers Rd
Indooroopilly
QLD
4068
Australia
+61 7 3365 9097

Type of resource

Resource scope
Dataset
Metadata linkage
https://geonetwork.tern.org.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/f59ae00d-2017-48c1-911a-8400249f1088

Point-of-truth metadata URL

Date info (Creation)
2021-05-31T00:00:00.000000+00:00
Date info (Revision)
2025-12-10T10:13:53.293179+00:00

Metadata standard

Title
ISO 19115-1:2014/AMD 1:2018 Geographic information - Metadata - Fundamentals
Edition
1

Metadata standard

Title
ISO/TS 19115-3:2016
Edition
1.0

Metadata standard

Title
ISO/TS 19157-2:2016
Edition
1.0
Title
Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN) Metadata Profile of ISO 19115-3:2016 and ISO 19157-2:2016
Date (published)
2021
Edition
1.0

Identifier

Code
10.5281/zenodo.5652221
Website
https://github.com/ternaustralia/TERN-ISO19115/releases/tag/v1.0

 
 

Overviews

Spatial extent

N
S
E
W


Keywords

ANZSRC Fields of Research
Atmospheric composition, chemistry and processes Atmospheric sciences Climate change processes Climatology Meteorology Other built environment and design Urban and regional planning
GCMD Science Keywords
AIR QUALITY AIR TEMPERATURE CARBON MONOXIDE LOCAL WINDS NITROGEN OXIDES PARTICULATE MATTER RAIN RELATIVE HUMIDITY SULFUR DIOXIDE TROPOSPHERIC OZONE URBAN AREAS WILDFIRES

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Access to the portal
Read here the full details and access to the data.

Associated resources

Not available


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