Rise South City (Rise AQI) is a hyperlocal air-quality monitoring, visualization, education, and forecasting app for South San Francisco and surrounding communities. It combines community sensor networks, weather forecasting, historical analytics, health education, and proactive notifications into a bilingual (English/Spanish) mobile experience.
Rise South City helps residents understand neighborhood-scale air quality through:
The app covers South San Francisco, San Bruno, Brisbane, northern Daly City, and nearby industrial corridors within a focused bounding box in the South San Francisco Bay Area.
Where does Rise South City get its air quality data?
Live readings come from dozens of local community sensors on the PurpleAir and Clarity networks deployed across South San Francisco and nearby communities. These measurements are ingested hourly, normalized, and filtered with quality controls before being displayed on the map. Wind forecast data from Open-Meteo supports the experimental projection model. Daily aggregated summaries are stored for long-term historical exploration.
How are map values calculated?
The app computes neighborhood-scale PM2.5 estimates on your device using ordinary kriging interpolation from nearby sensor readings. Tap anywhere on the map to inspect the estimated AQI and PM2.5 at that location. Accuracy depends on sensor density and availability in your area.
How do AQI alerts work?
You can choose a location on the map, set an AQI threshold, and pick a cooldown period. When estimated air quality at your selected location crosses your threshold, the app sends a push notification. Alert preferences are stored securely and evaluated on a regular schedule.
What is the projection model?
The short-term PM2.5 projection (0 to +5 hours) is an experimental research preview. It combines current sensor conditions, recent trends, historical analogs, and wind forecasts. It should not be interpreted as an official air-quality forecast.
Why do readings sometimes look missing or outdated?
Community sensors may go offline, fail, or report outliers that are filtered out during quality control. Historical views are reconstructed from available observations, so gaps may appear when sensor coverage is limited.
Is the app available in Spanish?
Yes. Rise South City is designed for a bilingual English/Spanish audience, including educational content in the Education Hub.
I found a bug. What should I do?
Please email a description of the issue, your device model, iOS version, and any screenshots that may help us reproduce the problem.
Can I request a feature?
Yes. Feature requests and feedback are welcome via email.
Rise South City uses anonymous authentication for alert registration and stores only the notification preferences you configure (location, threshold, cooldown, and push token). Air quality measurements come from third-party sensor and weather providers such as PurpleAir, Clarity, and Open-Meteo; we do not continuously track your location in the background.
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