Air Quality System (AQS)
From Exchange Network Wiki
Air Quality System (AQS) is EPA's repository of ambient air quality data.
The acronym is both an EPA database and is also an Exchange Network flow. Information about the AQS data exchange can be found here on the Exchange Network Web Site. The web-based query tool can be found here for the EPA AQS database, including the latest lookup tables.
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EPA AQS System Overview
The EPA AQS system is composed of two main parts; an Oracle relational database and an Oracle web-forms application. AQS has almost 700 users and receives approximately 100,000,000 transactions per year in about 10,000 data files. It also delivers over 50,000 reports per year to users. All data in AQS undergoes quality assurance checking as part of the load process. In addition, each submitting agency must send a letter once per year that certifies their regulatory data is complete and correct for the year.
Exchange Network AQS Flow
The node-based submission simply replaces a manual file upload. There are no Query/Solicit services.
The process to submit to AQS consists of a user transferring a transaction file from their agency to the EPA servers via CDX (web or node-to-node). They then log in to CDX Web and complete the remaining steps of loading the data into the AQS database.
GetStatus Responses
- Failed - Set if the file fails XML validation.
- Received - Set if the file passes XML validation, but has not yet been processed by AQS
- Complete - Set if the file has been processed by AQS independent of whether or not the data is actually loaded into the AQS database.
AQS Flow Version 2.1
Robert Coats of the National Air Data Group submitted the AQS v2.1 flow package to the NTG for publishing on 11/3/2008.
This is a minor update. The primary change associated with this XML schema update is the addition of the new Census Bureau geographic entities, Core Based Statistical Area (CBSA) and Consolidated Statistical Area (CSA). Additional minor changes include making Source Map Scale optional (since it is not defined for GPS methods) and making the Census Block Group optional (since it is not required by the Census Bureau). Additionally, the associated documentation (e.g. the Data Exchange Template) has been updated to address deficiencies reported in the version 2.0 documentation.
