Abstract
RAQSAPI is an add-on package for the R programming language andenvironment (hereafter referred to as simply “R”) that connects R to aU.S. EPA database for the retrieval of ambient air pollution data. Thisdocument is intended to state the purpose of creating RAQSAPI.The Clean Air act1 requiresall federal, state, local and tribal air pollution control agenciesmonitor ambient air for concentrations of certain air pollutants.Codified in 40 CFR Part 58 are the statutory requirements for thesemonitoring programs, including monitoring network technicalrequirements, operating schedules, data certification, data submittaland archiving requirements. In addition to the required air pollutionand meteorological monitoring, pollution control agencies often performadditional and/or voluntary air monitoring.
As required by 40 CFR Part 58, air pollution and meteorological datais submitted to the United States Environmental Protection Agency alongwith associated metadata and quality assurance metadata via EPA’s AirQuality System (AQS)2.
AQS Data Mart is a publicly accessible mirror of data stored on theAQS database designed to make air monitoring data more accessible anduseful to the technical community, scientific community and the generalpublic. Data on AQS is copied to AQS Data Mart once per week and thisdata is made available to the public through web-based applications andAPIs (application programming interface)3. RAQSAPI functions use the APIsprovided by AQS Data Mart to retrieve data.
RAQSAPI package for R is a easy to use R package that allows anyoneusing the R programming environment to retrieve data from AQS Data MartDatabase vi the exposed API interface using a set of functions withconsistent input variables, function names and output structure. RAQSAPIdoes not require installation of software or drivers external to R. Thegoal of RAQSAPI is to make a package which eases retrieving of ambientair monitoring data from AQS Data Mart.