Lifers Leaving a Legacy is an Oakland-based organization founded by Mr. Charles Reed building on principles of redemption, restoration, and service. Guided by the belief that lasting change comes from preparation and opportunity rather than chance, Lifers works to turn residents' own knowledge of their neighborhoods into informed action, treating community members as partners in science and solution-building rather than only recipients of it.
With support from the California Air Resources Board (CARB), Lifers is building a highly specialized air quality monitoring network within Oakland. This network focuses on pollutants such as ozone and particulate matter but also samples pollutants such as black carbon, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and metals. Together, this network goes well beyond typical community monitoring in an effort to deeply understand air pollutants impacting the people of Oakland.
The Air Quality Index (AQI) is the U.S. EPA's standard scale for translating pollutant concentrations into a single number the public can act on. It runs from 0 to 500 and is split into six color-coded categories, from Good to Hazardous. The higher the number, the greater the health risk; the upper categories specifically warn people with asthma, heart or lung disease, older adults, children, and pregnant people.
The Map's default view shows "Overall AQI", which is a combination of AQI from many different pollutants to provide a single value. PM₂.₅, PM₁₀, NO₂, CO, and Ozone values are used to calculate the Overall AQI, but each pollutant can also be viewed on their own in the Map.
Each pollutant has its own concentration breakpoints mapped to these categories, shown in the table below. Where a location has readings for more than one pollutant, its overall AQI is whichever pollutant's sub-index is highest at that time, not an average across pollutants.
Some pollutants shown here use NowCast instead of a plain instantaneous AQI. NowCast is an EPA method that turns the last several hours of readings into a single number, weighting the most recent hours more heavily than older ones. That makes it react almost as quickly as a plain instantaneous reading when conditions are changing fast (for example, during a wildfire smoke event), while smoothing out brief single-hour spikes that a plain instantaneous AQI would show. PM₂.₅ and PM₁₀ use NowCast here; NO₂/NOₓ, CO, and ozone instead use a plain instantaneous AQI, computed directly from that hour's own reading with no averaging.
Source: EPA, Technical Assistance Document for the Reporting of Daily Air Quality – the Air Quality Index (AQI) . NOₓ has no official EPA AQI and is shown here using the NO₂ scale. Ozone is evaluated against its 8-hour breakpoints using our 1-hour sensor readings as an approximation. PM₂.₅ and PM₁₀'s AQI is NowCast-based (a 12-hour weighted average that responds quickly to changing conditions), not a plain instantaneous reading, matching AirNow's own real-time reporting convention; NOₓ, CO, and ozone stay instantaneous. BC (black carbon) has no official EPA AQI at all and does not appear in this table. See the Map tab's legend for its separate concentration-bin scale.
Lifers' network combines several different kinds of instruments, each suited to a different set of pollutants.
More information: Clarity Node-S and add-on modules
More information: C-12 datasheet (PDF)
More information: Nutech SUMMA canisters and Method TO-15
Lifers' network also samples dozens of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and metals from monthly lab reports. See the Air Toxics tab for that data.
Readings are collected by field sensors and appended to a shared data store on a regular interval; this dashboard reads the latest available data on load and refresh.
Raw hourly readings are timestamped by the start of their collection period (e.g. a 6:00 PM reading covers 6:00-6:59 PM), but this dashboard displays hour labels using the end of the period instead (that same reading shown as 7:00 PM), matching AirNow's own Fire and Smoke Map / AQI reporting convention.
Some sites also report wind speed and direction: currently just the 105th St (Arsola House) sensor, with more Lifers sensors expected to add this over time. When shown, the small arrow next to that site's marker points in the direction the wind is blowing toward (not the direction it's coming from), and its length grows with wind speed in mph; it's hidden entirely below about 1 mph (calm conditions).
Partners proudly supporting Lifers on this important project:
