atmchile 0.1.1

Python library to obtain climate and air quality data from monitoring stations in Chile

atmchile

Python library to download air quality and climate data from two Chilean government monitoring networks: SINCA (Sistema de Información Nacional de Calidad del Aire), operated by the Ministry of Environment of Chile (MMA — Ministerio del Medio Ambiente), and DMC (Dirección Meteorológica de Chile). Both modules return tidy pandas DataFrames with download-lineage columns, and support synchronous and asynchronous bulk downloads.

Installation

pip install atmchile

Quick Start

from datetime import datetime
from atmchile import ChileAirQuality

caq = ChileAirQuality()
df = caq.get_data(
    stations="El Bosque",
    parameters=["PM10", "PM25"],
    start=datetime(2020, 1, 1),
    end=datetime(2020, 1, 31),
)
print(df.head())

Available Parameters

ChileAirQuality (SINCA)

Parameter	Description	Unit
PM10	Particulate matter ≤ 10 µm (hourly average)	µg/m³N
PM25	Particulate matter ≤ 2.5 µm (hourly average)	µg/m³N
SO2	Sulfur dioxide	µg/m³N
NOX	Nitrogen oxides (NO + NO₂)	ppb
NO2	Nitrogen dioxide	ppb
NO	Nitric oxide	ppb
O3	Tropospheric ozone	ppb
CO	Carbon monoxide	ppb
temp	Air temperature	°C
RH	Relative humidity	%
ws	Wind speed	m/s
wd	Wind direction (meteorological convention)	°

Units: µg/m³N = micrograms per normal cubic metre (0 °C, 1 atm); ppb = parts per billion by volume.

ChileClimateData (DMC)

Parameter	Description	Output column(s)	Unit
Temperatura	Air temperature	Ts	°C
PuntoRocio	Dew point temperature	Td	°C
Humedad	Relative humidity	HR	%
Viento	Wind	dd (direction), ff (speed), VRB (variability flag)	° / m/s / —
PresionQFE	Station-level pressure (QFE)	QFE	hPa
PresionQFF	Sea-level pressure (QFF)	QFF	hPa

Usage

ChileAirQuality

from datetime import datetime
from atmchile import ChileAirQuality

caq = ChileAirQuality()

data = caq.get_data(
    stations="El Bosque",
    parameters=["PM10", "PM25"],
    start=datetime(2020, 1, 1),
    end=datetime(2020, 1, 2),
)
print(data)

import asyncio
from datetime import datetime
from atmchile import ChileAirQuality

async def main():
    caq = ChileAirQuality(max_concurrent_downloads=5)

    data = await caq.get_data_async(
        stations=["RM", "II"],
        parameters=["PM10", "PM25"],
        start=datetime(2020, 1, 1),
        end=datetime(2021, 12, 31),
        region=True,
    )
    print(data)

asyncio.run(main())

ChileClimateData

from datetime import datetime
from atmchile import ChileClimateData

ccd = ChileClimateData()

data = ccd.get_data(
    stations="180005",
    parameters=["Temperatura", "Humedad"],
    start=datetime(2020, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0),
    end=datetime(2020, 12, 31, 23, 0, 0),
)
print(data)

import asyncio
from datetime import datetime
from atmchile import ChileClimateData

async def main():
    ccd = ChileClimateData(max_concurrent_downloads=5)

    data = await ccd.get_data_async(
        stations=["RM", "II"],
        parameters=["Temperatura", "PresionQFE"],
        start=datetime(2020, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0),
        end=datetime(2021, 12, 31, 23, 0, 0),
        region=True,
    )
    print(data)

asyncio.run(main())

Output columns & data lineage

Every DataFrame returned by get_data() / get_data_async() contains, alongside the measurement columns, companion dl.* lineage columns that record the status of every individual value. This lets you filter, audit, or visualize data quality without any additional processing.

ChileAirQuality

For each requested parameter {param}, the output includes:

Column	Always present	Description
{param}	yes	Measurement value, or NaN if missing or curated
dl.{param}	yes	Download / curation status (see below)
s.{param}	only if st=True	SINCA source validation tier (see below)

dl.{param} — possible values:

Value	Meaning
ok	Value was downloaded and is present
empty	Row exists in source but no measurement was reported for that hour
download_error	HTTP request failed or response could not be parsed; all rows for this parameter carry this status
curated	Value was present (ok) but a curation rule flagged it as physically inconsistent; measurement set to NaN

s.{param} — SINCA validation tier (only when st=True):

Value	SINCA source column	Meaning
V	Registros validados	Operationally validated by the monitoring network
PV	Registros preliminares	Preliminary, subject to revision
NV	Registros no validados	Raw, unvalidated
""	—	No value in any validation column for that row

Curation rules (applied when curate=True, which is the default):

Rule	Condition	Parameters nullified
NOX consistency	NO + NO₂ > NOX × 1.001	NO, NO2, NOX
PM consistency	PM2.5 > PM10 × 1.001	PM10, PM25
Wind direction range	wd < 0 or wd > 360	wd
Relative humidity range	RH < 0 or RH > 100	RH

ChileClimateData

For each output column {col} (e.g. Ts, HR, dd, ff):

Column	Always present	Description
{col}	yes	Measurement value, or NaN if missing
dl.{col}	yes	Download status (see below)

dl.{col} — possible values:

Value	Meaning
ok	Value is present (non-NaN) in the downloaded data
empty	Row exists but the value is NaN in the source
download_error	HTTP request failed or response could not be parsed; all rows for this column carry this status

ChileClimateData does not apply curation rules — there is no curated status for this class.

Data Sources

SINCA — air quality

SINCA (Sistema de Información Nacional de Calidad del Aire) is Chile's national air quality monitoring network, operated by the Ministry of Environment (MMA). It covers 120+ stations distributed across the country's administrative regions, measuring hourly concentrations of criteria pollutants and meteorological variables.

DMC — climate

DMC (Dirección Meteorológica de Chile) is Chile's national weather service, operated by the Dirección General de Aeronáutica Civil (DGAC). It provides synoptic climate observations (temperature, dew point, humidity, wind, surface and sea-level pressure) from stations nationwide.

Development

Run tests

# Run all tests
uv run pytest

# Run with more verbosity
uv run pytest -v

# Run tests with coverage (minimum threshold 80%)
uv run test-cov

Refresh station metadata

uv run refresh-stations

Fetches the current station list from the SINCA listadomapa2k19 endpoint and overwrites src/atmchile/data/sinca_stations.csv. Run this whenever SINCA adds or removes stations. The command prints a summary of stations written and a UTC timestamp.

If any station has an unrecognised region string, a WARNING line is printed and the station is written with region='UNKNOWN' so data loss is visible rather than silent. In that case, update REGION_MAP in src/atmchile/scripts.py before committing the refreshed CSV.

Linting and formatting

uv run ruff check . --fix
uv run ruff format .

Update dependencies

uv lock --upgrade && uv sync --all-extras

SINCA internals

SINCA does not expose a documented public API. The following documents how the library accesses its data, discovered via browser DevTools inspection of the interactive map at https://sinca.mma.gob.cl/mapainteractivo/index.html.

Backend architecture

SINCA runs on Airviro, a commercial air quality monitoring platform developed by IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute (Sweden). The backend is a CGI (Common Gateway Interface) system running on Apache/Linux, with data stored in a structured filesystem:

/usr/airviro/data/CONAMA/
└── {REGION}/{STATION_KEY}/
    ├── Cal/    # Calibrated pollutant measurements
    └── Met/    # Meteorological measurements

Station metadata discovery

The station list is loaded dynamically by the interactive map. Inspecting the network traffic reveals the JavaScript bundle mapa.js, which hardcodes the station list endpoint:

// mapa.js
var g = { listado: "//sinca.mma.gob.cl/index.php/json/listadomapa2k19/" };

This endpoint returns a JSON array where each object represents a station:

{
  "nombre":      "Alto Hospicio",
  "key":         "117",
  "latitud":     -20.290466881209,
  "longitud":    -70.100192427636,
  "comuna":      "Alto Hospicio",
  "red":         "Red MMA",
  "region":      "Región de Tarapacá",
  "regionindex": 2,
  "calificacion": "Pública",
  "empresa":     "Ministerio del Medio Ambiente",
  "realtime":    [...]
}

The realtime array contains the last 24 hours of readings and is not used for station metadata. The fields retained in sinca_stations.csv are:

JSON field	CSV column	Description
nombre	station_name	Human-readable station name
key	station_code	Unique station identifier used in download URLs
latitud	latitude	WGS84 (World Geodetic System 1984) latitude
longitud	longitude	WGS84 longitude
comuna	city	Municipality
region	region	Administrative region (roman numeral: I, II, ... RM)
red	network	Monitoring network name
regionindex	region_index	Numeric region index
calificacion	access_type	Access classification (Pública / Privada)
empresa	operator	Operating organization

Parameter code discovery

The same mapa.js reveals the parameter codes used throughout SINCA, hardcoded in a switch statement that maps internal codes to display labels:

switch (e.realtime[T].code) {
  case "PM10":  B = "MP 10";                break;
  case "PM25":  B = "MP 2.5";              break;
  case "0001":  B = "Dióxido de azufre";   break;
  case "0003":  B = "Dióxido de nitrógeno"; break;
  case "0004":  B = "Monóxido de carbono"; break;
  case "0008":  B = "Ozono";               break;
}

These codes map directly to filesystem paths in the download endpoint. Meteorological parameters (temp, RH, ws, wd) do not appear in mapa.js — their paths were discovered empirically by probing the CGI endpoint.

Data download endpoint

All historical data is served by a single public CGI endpoint with no authentication required. The URL is constructed as:

https://sinca.mma.gob.cl/cgi-bin/APUB-MMA/apub.tsindico2.cgi
  ?outtype=xcl
  &macro=./{STATION_CODE}{PARAMETER_PATH}from={YYMMDD}&to={YYMMDD}
  &path=/usr/airviro/data/CONAMA/
  &lang=esp&rsrc=&macropath=

The full set of parameter paths, as used by this library:

Parameter	Type	Path
PM10	Pollutant	/Cal/PM10//PM10.horario.horario.ic&
PM25	Pollutant	/Cal/PM25//PM25.horario.horario.ic&
SO2	Pollutant	/Cal/0001//0001.horario.horario.ic&
NO	Pollutant	/Cal/0002//0002.horario.horario.ic&
NO2	Pollutant	/Cal/0003//0003.horario.horario.ic&
CO	Pollutant	/Cal/0004//0004.horario.horario.ic&
O3	Pollutant	/Cal/0008//0008.horario.horario.ic&
NOX	Pollutant	/Cal/0NOX//0NOX.horario.horario.ic&
temp	Meteorological	/Met/TEMP//horario_000.ic& (alt: horario_010.ic&)
RH	Meteorological	/Met/RHUM//horario_000.ic& (alt: horario_002.ic&)
ws	Meteorological	/Met/WSPD//horario_000.ic& (alt: horario_010.ic&)
wd	Meteorological	/Met/WDIR//horario_000_spec.ic& (alt: horario_010_spec.ic&)

Meteorological parameters have an alternative path tried automatically when the primary returns no data. The date parameters use 6-digit format: YYMMDD (e.g., 200101 for January 1st, 2020).

Example — PM10 from Parque O'Higgins (RM/D14), January 2020:

https://sinca.mma.gob.cl/cgi-bin/APUB-MMA/apub.tsindico2.cgi?outtype=xcl&macro=./RM/D14/Cal/PM10//PM10.horario.horario.ic&from=200101&to=200131&path=/usr/airviro/data/CONAMA/&lang=esp&rsrc=&macropath=

Response format

The endpoint returns a semicolon-delimited CSV with hourly records and three validation columns in priority order:

Column	Description
FECHA (YYMMDD)	Date in YYMMDD format
HORA (HHMM)	Time in HHMM format
Registros validados	Operationally validated values (highest priority)
Registros preliminares	Preliminary values
Registros no validados	Raw, unvalidated values (lowest priority)

The library coalesces these three columns left-to-right, taking the first non-null value per row.

Station metadata (sinca_stations.csv)

The file src/atmchile/data/sinca_stations.csv is the source of truth for SINCA station metadata used by this library. It contains 118 stations across 22 monitoring networks, with columns: city, station_code, latitude, longitude, station_name, region, network, region_index, access_type, operator.

This file is kept up to date by running:

uv run refresh-stations

Note: The endpoint name (listadomapa2k19) and the parameter codes were discovered via source inspection and are not officially documented by MMA. Both are subject to change in future SINCA updates.

Attribution & AI Disclosure

This library is a Python port of the AtmChile R package by Francisco Menares et al., developed at the Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, Universidad de Chile. The original work was funded by ANID/FONDECYT Grant No. 1200674 (Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Científico y Tecnológico, Chile's national research funding agency).

The original package is described in:

Menares et al. (2022). The AtmChile Open-Source Interactive Application for Exploring Air Quality and Meteorological Data in Chile. Atmosphere, 13(9), 1364.

The initial R-to-Python port was generated with the assistance of Claude (Anthropic) AI. Subsequent architecture decisions, testing, and incremental improvements were made by the author.

License

This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0, inherited from the original AtmChile R package.