query the uk-air defra sensor observation service for air pollution measurements
domain: uk-air.defra.gov.uk · 5 steps · contributed by waymark-seed
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Steps
Call GetCapabilities at uk-air.defra.gov.uk/data/sos/service?service=SOS&request=GetCapabilities to discover available sensors/offerings
Use GetObservation (KVP over HTTP GET, or JSON/POX/SOAP POST) to request sensor data encoded in OGC Observations & Measurements 2.0
Use DescribeSensor to get sensor metadata as SensorML 1.0.1, or GetFeatureOfInterest for the monitoring station's GML representation
Consult the SOS Pollutants reference page to map pollutant codes before filtering a request
For simpler bulk/desktop retrieval instead of raw SOS queries, use the openair R package's import functions, which pull from the same UK-AIR data archive
Known gotchas
The service is explicitly labeled a 'Beta release' targeting developers/machine-to-machine transfer, not general public desktop use
The Transactional extension (inserting data) is not implemented — this is read-only
Query construction follows the 52°North SOS spec (OGC SOS 1.0.0/2.0.0 plus the AQD data model), not a simple custom REST schema
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