Methodology
How Aetheris turns raw signals into the indices you see across the platform — and, just as important, which layers are measured and which are still modeled.
Air quality
City-level AQI follows the US EPA 0–500 scale, derived from PM2.5, PM10 and NO₂ concentrations. Live readings come from the Open-Meteo Air Quality API (CAMS global model) and are merged over the model baseline on each visit; NO₂ is converted from µg/m³ to ppb for display.
Water, biodiversity & industry
The Water Quality (WQI), Biodiversity Intactness (BII) and Industrial Load (IEI) indices are currently modeled from a deterministic regional baseline — no free real-time point feed exists for these layers yet. Treat them as indicative, not measured.
Composite risk
The Environmental Risk Index (ERI) blends the layer indices with regional climate-risk weightings into a single 0–100 score per city.
Validation
Cross-checks between modeled values, live readings and community field reports are being formalised. This section will document the validation protocol and known error bounds.