CyAirProject

From Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP)

CyAir: Cyberinfrastructure for Air Quality Management

Cyberinfrastructure for air quality management (CyAir) was an U.S. EPA-funded project to contribute to the planning, development, maintenance and coordination of systems to help the air quality community better utilize air quality related information. The cyberinfrastructure is envisioned as a service-oriented, open-source, web-based network of air quality and pollutant observation, modeling, and emissions data providers and repositories and existing and new data analysis tools for use by the air quality management and research communities.

The project produced

  1. An articulated vision for the future evolution of the data infrastructure that supports the air quality management community.
  2. A series of recommendations for U.S. EPA investments to facilitate this evolution.
  3. A best practices document for data system managers to guide incremental steps towards a more interoperable cyberinfrastructure.

The goal of the best practices document is to describe current practices across the air quality community in interoperability, present the information associated with following these best practices in an understandable manner, and identify and encourage, as appropriate, use of the currently common and/or preferred community practices to maximize the advancement of a cyberinfrastructure for air quality management. This best practices document is intended to be used as a guidance or reference document and is a “living document,” to be updated by the community over time as more information becomes available to better capture the state of the art. The effort of capturing best practices is being coordinated through collaborative community spaces such as the ESIP Air Quality Work Group and the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) Atmospheric Composition/Air Quality Community of Practice (AQ CoP). Practices will change over time.