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LMAM (Locally-Managed Automatic Monitoring)

LMAM is DEFRA's umbrella feed for automatic air quality stations operated by UK local authorities and regional networks outside the national strategy (AURN, SAQN, WAQN, NI, AQE). It provides regulatory-grade hourly data from 196 active sites across six provider networks.

Overview

  • Coverage: UK (council and regional networks outside AURN/AQE)
  • Sensor type: Reference and reference-equivalent instruments
  • Data quality: Ratified (where provider supplies it; otherwise indicative)
  • API key: Not required
  • Operator: Various local authorities (DEFRA aggregates)

Provider Networks

Provider code Network Approx. sites
sussex Sussex Air Quality Network 53
kent Kent and Medway Air Quality 44
aqdm UK Air Quality (Defra-managed) 59
nlincs Air Quality in North Lincolnshire 28
leicester Leicester Council AQ Network 7
hants Hampshire Air Quality Network 6

The DEFRA metadata feed also lists london, aqengland, and essex provider codes, but their per-site data files don't currently exist on the server. Aeolus filters them out at metadata time so find_sites("LMAM") only returns sites whose data endpoints are reachable. For London coverage use the dedicated LAQN source instead.

Available Pollutants

NO, NO2, NOXasNO2, O3, SO2, CO, PM10, PM2.5 — the subset varies by site. The measurands column in the metadata frame lists each site's reported parameters.

Finding Sites

import aeolus

# All active LMAM sites
sites = aeolus.find_sites("LMAM")

# Restrict to one provider (use the `pcode` column from metadata)
kent_sites = sites[sites["pcode"] == "kent"]

# Or use spatial filters as usual
sx = aeolus.find_sites("LMAM", bbox=(-0.5, 50.5, 1.0, 51.2))

Downloading Data

import aeolus
from datetime import datetime

data = aeolus.download(
    "LMAM",
    sites=["BN1", "CR9"],   # use the site_code column from find_sites
    start_date=datetime(2024, 1, 1),
    end_date=datetime(2024, 12, 31),
)

API Details

  • Metadata: https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/openair/LMAM/R_data/LMAM_metadata.RData (single RData file)
  • Per-site data: https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/openair/LMAM/R_data/{pcode}/{SITE}_{YEAR}.RData

The {pcode}/ subfolder is the discriminator between provider networks — find_sites("LMAM") populates a site_code → pcode mapping from the metadata feed and the data fetcher uses it transparently. You don't normally need to deal with pcode yourself unless filtering by provider.

Notes

  • The R openair package's source="local" and source="lmam" are aliases for the same DEFRA feed.
  • Sites overlap with other UK sources at certain locations (e.g. a few AURN-affiliated sites also appear in LMAM via the aqdm provider). When a site is available in both, prefer the source with the ratification status you need.