Dutch Air Quality Screensaver
The Dutch Air Quality screensaver ranks live nitrogen dioxide readings across the Netherlands' national monitoring network, in micrograms per cubic metre, from Luchtmeetnet. NO2 is overwhelmingly a traffic pollutant, so roadside stations in the big cities sit far above the rural background, and a dashed line marks the WHO annual guideline of 10 µg/m³. It runs in the browser with nothing to install; press ESC to exit.
How the Dutch Air Quality screensaver works
The saver reads Luchtmeetnet, the open air quality API run by the Dutch national institute RIVM.
No account and no key: the request goes straight from your browser, or from this site's own refreshed copy of the feed where the source does not allow browser access.
Values are drawn on a canvas that resizes with the window, so it works on a laptop or a wall display.
If the source is unreachable the saver says so on screen rather than showing stale numbers as though they were current.
A worked example
Fifteen stations are listed by name with a coloured bar each — green under 10 µg/m³, through amber, to red above 40. The dashed line sits at the WHO guideline. Roadside stations in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Utrecht cluster at the top on a weekday morning; the same stations fall back toward the rural stations on a Sunday, because the difference between them is traffic.
Settings & tips
- Accent and Background recolour the display without changing the data.
- Add it to a Multi-view grid to watch it alongside other live savers.
- Press ESC at any time to leave fullscreen.
Frequently asked questions
- Why nitrogen dioxide rather than particulates?
- Because NO2 is the clearest signal of local traffic. Particulate matter drifts across borders and is heavily influenced by weather, so a high reading may have originated hundreds of kilometres away; NO2 is largely produced where it is measured.
- Why are station names streets rather than cities?
- Because the measurements API returns an opaque station number, and this saver joins it against the published station list to show where the instrument physically stands. Several stations sit within one city and can read very differently.
- Is this real data?
- Yes. It comes from Luchtmeetnet, the open air quality API run by the Dutch national institute RIVM. Nothing is invented or simulated, and if the source cannot be reached the saver reports that instead of drawing something plausible.
- Does it cost anything or need an account?
- No. Every screensaver here is free, runs in the browser and needs no sign-up. This one uses a public API that requires no key.