README.md

In openaq: Access Air Quality Data from the 'OpenAQ' API

openaq R client

An R package for interacting with the OpenAQ API.

Installation

The package is available to install through Github. Use the pkg_install command from pak package.

install.packages("pak")

pak::pkg_install("openaq/openaq-r@*release")

Quickstart

For a full walkthrough on using openaq we recommend that you read through the “Introduction to openaq” vignette (vignette("openaq")). The following guide is a quick and minimal example to get you started.

1. Register for an account at https://explore.openaq.org/register.
2. Find your API key in the user account page.
3. Save your API key as the OPENAQ_API_KEY environment variable . e.g. OPENAQ_API_KEY=yourkey in .Renviron. See help(openaq) for other ways to use and access your API key.

Now we can query OpenAQ for air quality monitoring locations. For this example we will query locations that measure PM2.5 near (with 10km) Antananarivo, Madagascar (-18.90848, 47.53751)

library(openaq)

locations <- list_locations(
    parameters_id = 2, 
    coordinates = c(latitude = -18.90848, longitude = 47.53751),
    radius = 10000
)

This returns a data frame that will look something like:

| id|name |is_mobile |is_monitor |timezone | countries_id|country_name |country_iso | latitude| longitude|datetime_first |datetime_last |owner_name | providers_id|provider_name | |-----:|:------------|:------------|:----------|:-------------------|------------:|:------------|:-----------|---------:|---------:|:-------------------|:-------------------|:---------------------------------|------------:|:-------------| | 41726|Antananarivo |FALSE |TRUE |Indian/Antananarivo | 182|Madagascar |MG | -18.90848| 47.53751|2020-12-22 07:00:00 |2025-01-17 20:00:00 |Unknown Governmental Organization | 119|AirNow |

Development

Contributions are welcome. See the Development Guide for setup, building, testing, and code style. See the Contribution Guide for general contribution guidelines.

openaq documentation built on March 19, 2026, 5:08 p.m.