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
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
- ANZSRC Fields of Research
- 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
- GCMD Horizontal Resolution Ranges
- GCMD Temporal Resolution Ranges
- 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
- Title
- Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence
- Alternate title
- CC-BY
- Edition
- 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
Distribution Information
- Distribution format
-
- NetCDF
Distributor
Distributor
Distribution Information
- Distribution format
-
- NetCDF
Distributor
Distributor
Distribution Information
- Distribution format
-
- NetCDF
Distributor
Distributor
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
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
Overviews
Spatial extent
N
S
E
W
Provided by
Associated resources
Not available