The Local Air Emissions Tracking Atlas (LOCAETA)
Project Overview
What is LOCAETA?
The Local Air Emissions Tracking Atlas (LOCAETA for short, pronounced “low-kay-shuh”) is an air quality analysis tool and data explorer for communities across the U.S. to help understand:
- Long-term local air quality and associated public health impacts from industrial facility emissions
- How to estimate potential air quality improvements (and public health benefits) that could come from decarbonizing these facilities (which describes the process of transitioning fuel types, changing processes, or adding capture equipment to lower or eliminate the greenhouse gas emissions from the facility)
LOCAETA lets users explore the long-term air quality for their community, as well as what would happen to local air quality if industrial facilities in the community decarbonized.
Access the LOCAETA Data Explorer Prototype HERE. The prototype covers Louisiana, facility and non-point sources of PM2.5, and reductions in PM2.5 likely to occur with amine-based carbon capture on industrial stationary combustion sources. The next version of LOCAETA is scheduled to be released publicly in March 2026 covering U.S. nationwide extent, other air pollutants, and other decarbonization approaches. This work is currently underway. If you would like to speak with the team about accessing results for locations, pollutants, or scenarios not covered by the current prototype, please reach out to us.
How does LOCAETA work?
LOCAETA takes large amounts of data on industrial facility emissions, satellite and in situ measurements of atmospheric concentrations of specific pollutants, and uses expert insights and new modeling and analysis from atmospheric modelers and chemists to map out where and how those emissions spread in the air to impact communities. LOCAETA also looks at the composition of the community members to understand where there may be communities with higher populations of residents who would be particularly vulnerable to poor air quality, and for whom potential improvements to local air quality would have outsized benefit from a public health perspective.
Who is it for?
LOCAETA is made for all communities across the United States and the people living in these communities; however, it may have outsized impact in heavily industrialized areas with a greater concentration of power and industrial facilities.
The tool allows community members to “see” the pollution in the air they breathe and understand the extent to which that pollution can be attributed to local industrial facilities. LOCAETA further provides a platform for community members not only ask but also receive an answer to the question: “what would happen if industry were to decarbonize? How would it change the air that I breathe in my community?”
Beyond community members, regional actors, non-profit organizations, local governments, academia, and industry partners may all be interested in using LOCAETA for a variety of applications—ranging from research to strategic outreach, to community organizing, policy advocacy, and more.
Who is developing it?
The LOCAETA team is comprised of atmospheric, air quality, industrial engineering, and chemistry experts. The organization leading the research is called Carbon Solutions, a small business of 30 employees, based out of Michigan in the United States. The work is funded by a Department of Energy (DOE) Small Business Innovation Research grant.
The project team is also overseen by a five-person advisory board, compiled to help speak to both the technical (and modeling) inputs to the tool, but also to the needs of potential community users to maximize the decision-making and potential for local use of the tool by community members.
References
A paper about the LOCAETA methodology in Frontiers in Public Health (2024):