Kualiti udara: JAS lapor hasil pemantauan stesen, platform lain guna sumber berbeza

Petaling Jaya: Malaysia’s Environment Ministry, JAS, advises the public to rely on official JAS sources for air quality information, noting that readings from two different platforms cannot be directly compared based solely on the numbers displayed. The agency operates air quality monitoring through 68 stations adhering to international standards and protocols.

JAS explains that discrepancies between indices like Malaysia’s Air Quality Index (AQI) and the Air Pollution Indicator (IPU) sometimes arise due to differences in scale, calculation methods, baselines, moving averages, update frequency, and data sources. For instance, Malaysia’s IPU represents an hourly average calculated from sub-indexes for six major air pollutants, whereas some international platforms might use distinct scales or rely on different data sources like low-cost sensors, model estimates, or satellite data.

Satellite data, which measures atmospheric particulate matter density rather than genuine ground-level air quality, can have limitations including the potential for misinterpretation of mist or fog as smoke. Consequently, accurate comparisons of IPU and AQI figures from different platforms necessitate identical measurement locations, times, specific pollutant concentrations (especially PM2.5), and index calculation methods.

JAS urges the public to obtain air quality data from official JAS sources, such as the Air Pollutant Index Management System (APIMS) or the official MyJAS EQMS app, which updates every hour, to ensure accurate, consistent, and relevant information for daily activity decisions and health protection.