High-Resolution Estimation of Daily PM_2.5 Levels in the Contiguous US Using Bi-LSTM with Attention

Estimating surface-level PM_2.5 concentrations at any given location is crucial for public health monitoring and cohort studies. Existing models and datasets for this purpose have limited precision, especially on high-concentration days. Additionally, due to the lack of open-source code, generating estimates for other areas and time periods remains cumbersome. We developed a novel deep learning-based model that improves the surface-level PM_2.5 concentration estimates by capitalizing on the temporal dynamics of air quality. Specifically, we improve the estimation precision by developing a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) network with Attention and integrating multiple data sources, including in situ measurements, remotely sensed data, and wildfire smoke density observations, which improve the model's ability to capture high-concentration events. We rigorously evaluate the model against existing products, demonstrating a 2.2% improvement in overall RMSE, and a 9.8% reduction in RMSE on high-concentration days, highlighting the superior performance of our approach, particularly on high-concentration days. Using the model, we have produced a comprehensive dataset of PM_2.5 estimates from 2005 to 2021 for the contiguous United States and are releasing an open-source framework to ensure reproducibility and facilitate further adaptation in air quality studies.