24 Jun 2025CERC working with Vodafone on Mayor of London’s Breathe London sensor network

CERC is delighted to be part of the new consortium running the Mayor of London's Breathe London network. The consortium will coordinate all 136 existing air quality sensor sites across the capital, introducing advanced methodologies for sensor calibration and data quality assurance, and engaging key community groups and organisations such as schools, NHS Trusts and Local Authorities to make accurate air quality data available to everyone in London, and mobilise communities in the fight against toxic air.

CERC's role is to provide a robust and reliable operational calibration and quality control system, and secure online access to the current and historical NO2 and PM2.5 measurements through the Breathe London API. The network calibration system was developed using an innovative scale-separation technique pioneered by consortium members Professor Rod Jones and Dr Olalekan Popoola from the University of Cambridge. Amy Stidworthy from CERC's Forecasting and Data Services team explains the network calibration method and gives examples of comparisons with measurements from reference-standard instruments in this video.

The Breathe London Consortium is led by Vodafone, who also provide sensor connectivity and hosting infrastructure, and brings together leading experts in all aspects of air quality. Airly provides the sensors, Scotswolds provides expert oversight of sensor installation and data quality, Global Action Plan leads community engagement including the website, and Ricardo will conduct an independent annual review of sensor data quality.

Announcing the new phase of Breathe London, the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan said: I am delighted that Vodafone will deliver the next stage of my pioneering Breathe London programme by leading a consortium of partners and utilising their technical expertise and advanced connectivity. Reducing London's air pollution is one of my top priorities and this advanced monitoring network will provide invaluable data to help organisations across the capital take action on air quality and protect public health.

You can read the full press release online.

14 Apr 2025Booking is now open for the ADMS User Group Meetings, 26-27 November 2025, Bristol

You can now book your tickets for the 2025 ADMS User Group Meetings, which will be held at the M Shed on 26th and 27th November.

• ADMS 6 User Group Meeting, 26th November
• ADMS-Urban and ADMS-Roads, 27th November

The annual ADMS User Group Meetings are a great opportunity to hear the latest ADMS model news and advice from CERC consultants and model developers, to hear talks by model users about their own applications of the software, and to network with other model users.

Tickets are available to order through Eventbrite until 23:30 on Monday 10th November. Organisations with a valid software support contract are entitled to one or more tickets free of charge depending on the type of licence held. The draft programme will be published soon.

31 Mar 2025Calculating health impacts of air pollution in Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire County Council are working with CERC and the University of Birmingham to calculate the air quality and health impacts of potential policy scenarios including the county and national Net Zero ambitions.

CERC are using ADMS-Urban to calculate detailed pollution maps across all of Oxfordshire in order to generate input data into the University of Birmingham's Air Quality Lifecourse Assessment Tool (AQ-LAT) which estimates ward-level impacts of PM_2.5 and NO₂ on health outcomes, mortality and associated healthcare costs.

The differences in the dispersion of pollutants in the City of Oxford compared to the rest of the county, which is largely rural, have been taken into account by using the Advanced Street Canyon and Urban Canopy tools in ADMS-Urban as well as varying area-wide dispersion parameters.

Base-year concentration maps have been generated and the concentrations averaged by Lower layer Super Output Area (LSOA) for use in AQ-LAT (see figure).

CERC are currently finalising the future scenario testing with Oxfordshire County Council. A baseline for 2035 using projected road and non-road emissions has been produced including proposed traffic filters, electrification of the bus fleet and Oxford City's Zero Emission Zone. The impact of additional policies, including the reduction of traffic, further electrification of the vehicle fleet and reductions in domestic wood burning, will be evaluated by adjusting the emissions, modelling the impact on ambient concentrations and calculating the resulting impact on health.

12 Mar 2025Online Training Courses Offered by CERC

CERC are pleased to announce they now offer seven online courses:

• ADMS-Urban
• ADMS-Roads
• ADMS 6
• ADMS-Airport
• EMIT
• MAQS
• ADMS-STAR

The latest course to go online being ADMS-STAR.

The CERC online training courses have been extremely popular both in the UK and overseas. Here are a couple of recent comments from attendees:

".....thank you for the smooth registration process and help received prior to the course. We were very impressed with the quality of the slides and worked example material."

"I would like to give some praise in my report to your course which is very thorough and one of the best I have seen so far."

If you would like further information about the training courses offered by CERC, and how to book a place, please visit the training schedule on the CERC website, or email training@cerc.co.uk.

21 Feb 2025New Air Pollution Source Tool (APST) undergoing user trials

CERC is carrying out user trials of its new Air Pollution Source Tool (APST). APST is CERC's new software tool for separating, for each hour, the air pollution concentration measurements from monitor/sensor networks into the component which is emitted from local sources and the component which arises from long-range transport due to more remote sources.

APST is a windows-based desktop application with a user-friendly interface, including integrated mapping, and a comprehensive user guide. APST includes automatic linkage to online UK monitoring datasets including the AURN and AQE networks, along with the option to include user-defined datasets (e.g. sensor data). Outputs include hourly and aggregated concentration data for each monitor/sensor apportioned into background and local components, and attractive graphics.

The user trials run until the end of February. If you are interested in taking part please contact us at software@cerc.co.uk. More details on APST can be found in the presentation given at the 2024 ADMS-Urban and ADMS-Roads User Group Meeting. APST is expected to be released later this year.