National atmospheric chemistry database and analysis facility
The National Atmospheric Chemistry (NAtChem) Data archive and Analysis Facility provides information and data on the study of air quality. The data help to address topics such as smog, ozone, mercury and acid rain.
NAtChem contains the following data:
- atmospheric particles
- atmospheric gases
- combined atmospheric gases and particles
- precipitation chemistry
- special studies of all atmospheric measurements
The NAtChem database has data from several Canadian networks and several short-term special studies. There are also some data from older USA based networks which are not available elsewhere. The sites within these networks are from rural or background (remote) locations. We choose these locations to represent the air quality in these regions.
Information about how and where we measure air quality data is available from the link:
Data from urban sites are archived and distributed separately by the National Air Pollution Surveillance Program (NAPS).
The data can tell us about:
- the chemical nature of the atmosphere
- the processes of the atmosphere such as changes in time and space (known as temporal and spatial patterns)
- how air pollutants move through the atmosphere and are deposited on land, water and in rain and snow (precipitation)
- how air pollutants move long distances (known as long range transport) through the atmosphere