Wedding monitor
—µg/m³ · one-hour averageNo reading shown until its source time is checked.
Berliner Luftgütemessnetz ↗A little air curiosity
What’s in the air?
Tiny particles. A changing sky. Let’s look a little closer.
One world. Different kinds of evidence.
Explore haze & air
A broad model helps us see patterns. A ground reading tells us about a monitored region. Keep both in view.
Model colours · PM2.5 (µg/m³)![CAMS source colour key]()
Checking the source colour key. Map colours show a regional estimate.
A pale or blank patch does not establish clean air. Cloud, observation gaps, model uncertainty and loading problems can affect what appears. A hotspot nearby does not prove where haze came from.
Little windows around the world
Closer to the ground
A few places to look a little closer. Each PM2.5 card names its monitor or region and its reporting period. These are not whole-city averages.
Checking each source independently. Missing readings do not mean clean air.
Central/Western monitor
—µg/m³ · hourly reported concentrationNo reading shown until its source time is checked.
Hong Kong EPD / DATA.GOV.HK ↗Bloomsbury monitor
—µg/m³ · one-hour averageNo reading shown until its source time is checked.
Defra / UK-AIR ↗Escuelas Aguirre monitor
—µg/m³ · one-hour averageNo reading shown until its source time is checked.
Ayuntamiento de Madrid ↗Central region
—µg/m³ · one-hour averageNo reading shown until its source time is checked.
NEA / data.gov.sg ↗Topaz monitor
—µg/m³ · one-hour averageNo reading shown until its source time is checked.
Province of British Columbia ↗Rozelle monitor
—µg/m³ · one-hour averageNo reading shown until its source time is checked.
NSW Government ↗Preliminary measurements can be revised. Each card keeps its own source time; readings more than four hours old are hidden here. Hong Kong reports an hourly concentration; the other cards show one-hour averages. Keep reporting periods, settings and source times together; these examples are unsuitable as a city ranking. Map pins are city label locations, not monitor positions.
Berlin. Source: luftdaten.berlin.de - Berliner Luftgütemessnetz. Selected hourly PM2.5 observation, reformatted with time in UTC. Dataset. Data licence Germany – attribution 2.0. Accessed 2026-10-25.
Hong Kong. Source and data ownership: Environmental Protection Department, Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, via DATA.GOV.HK. Selected PM2.5 concentration, reformatted with time in UTC. Dataset. DATA.GOV.HK Terms of Use. Accessed 2026-10-25.
London. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. © Crown copyright Defra via uk-air.defra.gov.uk. Open Government Licence v3.0. Accessed 2026-10-25.
Madrid. Source: Ayuntamiento de Madrid, air-quality observations. Selected hourly observation; time displayed in UTC. Licensed under CC BY 4.0. CC BY 4.0. Accessed 2026-10-25.
Singapore. Contains information from NEA’s PM2.5 dataset accessed through data.gov.sg under the Singapore Open Data Licence version 1.0. Singapore Open Data Licence 1.0. Accessed 2026-10-25.
Victoria. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – British Columbia. Source: Province of British Columbia, unverified hourly air-quality data, Victoria Topaz. Selected PM2.5 observation; time displayed in UTC. Dataset. Open Government Licence – British Columbia. Accessed 2026-10-25.
Sydney. Source: Climate and Atmospheric Science Branch, Department of Planning Industry and Environment, NSW Government. Selected hourly observation; time displayed in UTC. Licensed under CC BY 4.0. CC BY 4.0. Accessed 2026-10-25.
This is an independent learning page, not an official monitoring or advisory service. For health advice and local instructions, use the relevant official local authority.
A little light discovery
Where did the distant hills go?
More particles can change how light reaches us. Try it in this drawing.
Try an idea
Small particles. A softer view.
Particles can scatter or absorb light. Some light takes a different path, and the distant view can lose contrast.
Start with fewer particles. The hills look clearer.
The sizes and changes are exaggerated. Visibility also depends on humidity, particle type and other conditions.
A little evidence game
Which clue would you choose?
A map, a measurement, a hotspot. Each answers a different question.
A monitor samples air in one place.
1 of 3 · Practice, not live data
Which source is more useful for recent ground-level PM2.5 in a monitored region?
Choose a clue to discover why.
Air crosses borders
Winds can carry particles far from their source. Timing and transport matter; a nearby fire alone cannot explain a local reading.
Explore CAMS’s atmosphere explanation ↗Haze is not always smoke
Smoke, dust, sea salt and other aerosols can affect light. The total particle layer does not identify the cause of each coloured patch.
Meet aerosols with NASA ↗Sky column. Ground sample.
Aerosol optical depth describes particles’ effect on light through an atmospheric column. PM2.5 describes fine-particle mass per volume of air. They are different quantities.
Read the CAMS map meanings ↗Sources & credits
The evidence behind the view
Generated using Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service information 2026. Neither the European Commission nor ECMWF is responsible for any use that may be made of the Copernicus information or data it contains.
Global model · Copernicus CAMS
CAMS global forecasts / map service documentation / Licence to use Copernicus Products.
This public map feed serves selected forecast frames from its 00 UTC run, normally made available around 20 UTC. The colours are regional estimates; zooming does not add local detail. We retain the provider’s quantity-based palettes and colour keys.
Measured PM2.5 · city windows
The city cards name each selected monitor or region and its provider. Each source is checked separately and keeps its own source time. Readings older than four hours are hidden, including when an open tab resumes. Full measured-data credits and licence links appear with the city cards above.
Satellite hotspots · NASA GIBS / FIRMS
We acknowledge imagery from NASA’s Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of its Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS). GIBS / FIRMS / NASA data-use guidance.
Suomi NPP / VIIRS thermal anomalies and fires, 375 m product. One satellite and one dated daily layer; this is not every fire or an exact fire boundary. Clouds, coverage and detection limits can hide fires. NASA imagery days older than two days are hidden.
The drawings and activity are original LifeHubber illustrations. This page helps you explore evidence; local instructions and air-quality advisories belong with official local sources.