Google and Aclima work towards making cities pollution free

Google and Aclima, a firm known for mapping hyperlocal air pollution, have announced that they will give researchers access to new sets of city pollution data in order to combat the larger issue of climate change and unhealthy air. The two companies have been working together since past four years wherein the Google Street View vehicles in California used Aclima sensors to measure the pollution level.

It has been reported that these data sets will help researchers take a look at the changes in air quality from block to block. As mentioned by The Verge, the data includes 42 million measurements of smog, soot, black carbon, nitrogen oxides, carbon dioxide, and methane. The report adds that researchers’ ability to zoom in and compare the air pollution street-by-street will also make it easier to recognise the source of pollution.

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“We’re really increasing the pixels on the picture of air quality. The technology or the methodology to do that just hadn’t been available,” Aclima co-founder and CEO Davida Herzl tells The Verge.

For those unaware, Google Street View Cars with Aclima sensors started recording pollution levels back in 2015. For this, they would need to drive repeatedly from the same street to detect the baseline pollution level. “On a single city block on one end, you might have one level of pollution, and on the other end, you can have levels of pollution that are eight times higher. Those hotspots can be persistent for years,” Herzl adds.