WELCOME
AeroSense is one of the algorithm models developed within EU LDT Toolbox to help cities understand how air pollution behaves across their territory.
By combining basic meteorological information (wind, temperature, humidity, pressure) with a configurable map area and time window, the model simulates how different pollutants move, disperse, and concentrate throughout the day. It does not require a network of air quality sensors. Instead, it generates pollution estimates for the entire urban and peri-urban area using atmospheric physics and chemistry.
The result is a set of concentration maps for key pollutants (including CO, NO, NO₂, O₃, SO₂, PM₁₀, and PM₂.₅) displayed on the city map through the EU LDT Play & Visualise tool. These maps show where air quality may worsen under different conditions, helping municipalities identify potential risk zones and explore how weather patterns influence local pollution levels.
This enables cities to move from sparse, sensor-dependent monitoring to a comprehensive, simulated picture of air quality across the entire territory, supporting more informed decisions on zoning, traffic management, and public health protection.
THE CHALLENGE
Air quality is one of the most pressing urban health concerns in Europe. Yet, most cities have only a handful of monitoring stations, typically placed at fixed locations that may not represent the conditions experienced across the wider territory.
This leaves large parts of the city unmeasured. Pollution levels can vary dramatically within a few hundred metres, influenced by traffic patterns, building density, wind corridors, and proximity to emission sources, but without dense sensor coverage, these variations remain invisible.
As a result, municipalities often lack the information they need to answer basic questions: where are the worst air quality hotspots? How does pollution from one area affect neighbouring districts? Are sensitive locations like schools and hospitals adequately protected? And how would a change in traffic or land use affect air quality across the city?
Deploying enough physical sensors to answer these questions comprehensively would be prohibitively expensive. Cities need a way to estimate pollution distribution across the entire territory using the data and infrastructure they already have.
HOW IT WORKS
AeroSense simulates pollution behaviour across the city using atmospheric physics and chemistry, requiring only a geographic area, a time window, and automatically retrieved weather data:
The user defines the geographic area to simulate by specifying centre coordinates, grid size, grid spacing, and map projection. The time window can range from 6 to 72 hours. This flexibility allows cities to run anything from a focused analysis of a single district during a heat event to a multi-day regional simulation covering the entire metropolitan area.
AeroSense automatically retrieves weather data from GFS/NOAA (Global Forecast System), a publicly available global meteorological service. This includes wind speed and direction, temperature, humidity, and atmospheric pressure at multiple altitudes. Cities do not need their own weather stations or meteorological infrastructure as the model handles this automatically.
The model produces concentration maps for seven pollutant types: CO, NO, NO₂, O₃, SO₂, PM₁₀, and PM₂.₅. Each map shows how concentrations vary across the simulation domain and over time, identifying hotspots, dispersion corridors, and areas where pollutants accumulate. The outputs also include meteorological context (temperature, humidity, wind) to support interpretation.
INTEGRATION WITHIN THE EU LDT TOOLBOX
AeroSense operates within the simulation layer of the EU LDT Toolbox, providing city-wide air quality estimation that complements traffic and energy analysis.
WHY IT MATTERS
AeroSense gives cities a comprehensive picture of air quality across their entire territory, without the cost and complexity of huge sensor networks.
See how cities make better decisions.
WHO USES IT
LOOKING FOR DOCUMENTATION?
Access the right resources based on your role and what you need to achieve.
Are you an environmental or public health lead?
Understand how AeroSense supports air quality assessment, health protection planning, and environmental policy evaluation. Explore use cases and see how cities use pollution simulation to design better urban environments.
Are you part of a technical or data team?
Deploy and configure the model. Set up the simulation domain, manage outputs, and integrate results with Play & Visualise.
New to the Toolbox? Start with the core concepts to understand how everything connects.
STANDARDS AND COMPLIANCE
The model is mainly grounded in EU Ambient Air Quality Directives, WHO Air Quality Guidelines, CHIMERE, GFS/NOAA, SDG 11, and EU Green Deal reinforcing interoperability and deployment flexibility across the ecosystem.
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