Gareth Kennedy

data all-rounder and computational scientist

 

Beijing Air Quality


Overview

This project originally started in July 2012 when I moved to Beijing and wanted to show my Australian mates that it wasn't as polluted as we thought. Well it wasn't when I visited in December 2010... I swear! Sadly I was wrong about the pollution not being so bad since 2012, as can be seen by the final movies.

All of the images shown here were taken by me on my way into work from the same positions at roughly the same time each morning. The target tower is an observation tower in the area set aside for the 2008 Olympic Games, the structure was only completed at the end of 2014 when these pictures finish. There are gaps of months due to conferences/travel out of China, and often the weekends are missing. The reason for the changes in position are; firstly that I moved house, and secondly that a line of trees was transplanted in front of position 2 one weekend.

Details of how these movies were put together using python are given here. The python scripts are also made available with particular focus on how the photos were aligned, in case others find these useful.


Position 1

Position 1 images ordered in chronological order. This movie can be downloaded in AVI format here.

Position 1 images ordered by increasing PM 2.5 value. This movie can be downloaded here.


Position 2

Position 2 images ordered in chronological order. This movie can be downloaded in AVI format here.

Position 2 images ordered by increasing PM 2.5 value. This movie can be downloaded here.


Position 3

Position 3 images ordered in chronological order. This movie can be downloaded in AVI format here.

Position 3 images ordered by increasing PM 2.5 value. This movie can be downloaded here.


Additional links

The relation between wind direction and speed is fairly well known to many Beijingers. Basically wind from the north or north-west is good, everything else makes little difference. If you are interested in a more statistical analysis of where the pollution comes from and how the PM2.5 "resets" check out this link link. The data I used is the same as what they use and can be found here.


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