R Package for Accessing EPA AQS data
This package provides an R interface for the EPA Air Quality System (AQS) API. Information about the API, including Terms of Service, is available at https://aqs.epa.gov/aqsweb/documents/data_api.html.
The AQS API requires an email address and key for all queries. The key is not used for authentication (as in a password), but it is used for identification. Sign-up using the aqs_signup() function, and your key phrase will be emailed.
Once an email address and key are registered, assign them to a list in the working environment using create_user(). For example:
my_user <- create_user(email="myemail@mydomain",
key="mykeyhere")
All functions for requesting data from the API require that this be provided in the aqs_user argument.
The primary functions for requesting measurements stored in the AQS database are aqs_annualData(), aqs_dailyData(), and aqs_sampleData(). Information on parameter codes and required input for defining data requests can be obtained from the API using aqs_list(). Variations of each function exist for queries targeting a specific criteria, e.g. aqs_annualData_byState().
The underlying function that queries the API is aqs_get(), which can be called directly if desired.