Environment API
Eighteen endpoints answering questions about a coordinate on the earth. Air quality now, forecast and history. Pollen by type. Soil classification, numeric soil properties, and live soil temperature and moisture at several depths. Recent earthquakes, active wildfires, and every category of natural hazard event. Terrain elevation by coordinate or by place name. Nearby species observations. Lunar phase for a date.
Each one takes a latitude and longitude and returns JSON. Several carry a coverage limit that is a property of the underlying science rather than of this API, and those limits are stated on the endpoint rather than buried: current air quality is United States coverage, pollen is Europe, and historical windows run up to 92 days.
Endpoints
18 endpoints. Request and response examples for each one are in the full reference.
| Method | Endpoint | What it returns |
|---|---|---|
| GET | /environment/airapi.aquabotany.com |
Current air quality for a coordinate (US coverage). |
| GET | /environment/air/forecastapi.aquabotany.com |
Daily air-quality outlook, global: mean pollutant levels and peak AQI per day. |
| GET | /environment/air/historyapi.aquabotany.com |
Daily air-quality history, global (up to 92 days back). |
| GET | /environment/earthquakesapi.aquabotany.com |
Recent earthquakes, optionally near a coordinate. |
| GET | /environment/elevationapi.aquabotany.com |
Terrain elevation at a coordinate. |
| GET | /environment/elevation-by-placeapi.aquabotany.com |
Terrain elevation for a named place. |
| GET | /environment/eventsapi.aquabotany.com |
Active natural-hazard events across all EONET natural-event categories: wildfires, severe storms, volcanoes, floods, drought, dust and haze, earthquakes, landslides, sea and lake ice, snow, temperature extremes, water color, and man-made events. |
| GET | /environment/flora-and-faunaapi.aquabotany.com |
Nearby species observations. |
| GET | /environment/moonapi.aquabotany.com |
Lunar phase for a date. |
| GET | /environment/pollenapi.aquabotany.com |
Current airborne pollen levels by type (Europe coverage). |
| GET | /environment/pollen/forecastapi.aquabotany.com |
Daily pollen outlook: each type's peak level with a severity band (Europe coverage). |
| GET | /environment/pollen/historyapi.aquabotany.com |
Daily pollen history, up to 92 days back (Europe coverage). |
| GET | /environment/soil/compositionapi.aquabotany.com |
Soil classification (WRB) for a coordinate. |
| GET | /environment/soil/moistureapi.aquabotany.com |
Live soil temperature and moisture at several depths. |
| GET | /environment/soil/propertiesapi.aquabotany.com |
Numeric soil properties for a point. soil_properties passes through every numeric layer ISRIC SoilGrids publishes for the location, keyed by SoilGrids layer name (the example shows clay , sand , phh2o , and soc ); each property carries its unit and mean values per depth band, already scaled to the stated unit. |
| GET | /environment/wildfireapi.aquabotany.com |
Active wildfire events, optionally near a coordinate. |
| GET | /sustainability/recycling-locationsapi.aquabotany.com |
Nearby recycling drop-off locations. |
| GET | /sustainability/tipsapi.aquabotany.com |
Sustainability and eco tips. |
Where the data comes from
| Data | Published by |
|---|---|
| Current air quality, United States | AirNow, the US Environmental Protection Agency's reporting service |
| Air quality forecast and history, global | Open-Meteo air quality |
| Pollen levels, forecast and history, Europe | Open-Meteo air quality |
| Soil classification and numeric soil properties | ISRIC SoilGrids |
| Soil temperature and moisture by depth | Open-Meteo |
| Terrain elevation | Open-Meteo elevation |
| Earthquakes | United States Geological Survey |
| Wildfires and natural hazard events | NASA EONET |
| Species observations | iNaturalist |
| Lunar phase | Computed, no upstream service |
Getting started
Every endpoint is JSON over HTTPS and takes one API key in an x-api-key header. There is no SDK to install and no OAuth dance.
curl "https://api.aquabotany.com/v1/environment/air?lat=44.98&lon=-93.27" \
-H "x-api-key: $BBL_API_KEY"Quickstart, authentication and errors and rate limits are documented in the reference. Keys are issued from the Bottle Blue dashboard.
Common questions
What does the environment API actually return for a coordinate?
It depends which endpoint you call. Air quality returns pollutant levels and an index value, soil composition returns a World Reference Base classification, soil moisture returns temperature and moisture at several depths, and the hazard endpoints return events near the point. Each endpoint documents its own response shape in the full reference.
Why is current air quality limited to the United States?
The current-conditions endpoint reads AirNow, which is the EPA's monitoring network and covers the United States. The forecast and history endpoints use a global model instead, so those work anywhere. If you need worldwide current conditions, the forecast endpoint's first day is the closest equivalent.
How far back does the historical data go?
Air quality and pollen history return up to 92 days. Weather history is a separate endpoint and reaches considerably further, since it reads a reanalysis dataset rather than a monitoring network.
Is there a soil moisture endpoint for agriculture?
Yes. Soil moisture returns live soil temperature and moisture at several depths for a coordinate, and there are separate endpoints for soil classification and for the numeric soil properties behind it. They are the same endpoints the Aqua Botany plant monitoring product runs on.
Do I need a separate key for the environment endpoints?
No. One Bottle API key reaches every endpoint your plan includes, across all of the hosts. Note that the environment routes answer on api.aquabotany.com rather than api.bottlebluellc.com, which the reference lists per endpoint.