City report · Mali
Gao Air quality today
Air quality in Gao currently reads AQI 60 (Moderate): Unusually sensitive people should consider limiting long outdoor exertion.
Air quality right now
AQI 60
Moderate
- PM2.5, fine particles (µg/m³)
- 14.0
- tree cover
- 0.6%
- trees in this area
- 1.6K
- more trees needed
- 78.8K
Measured across a 2 km radius around Gao, Mali (12.57 km²), from a satellite image of Sep 22, 2026. Lower AQI is better: 0–50 is Good, above 300 is Hazardous.
Gao · AQI 60 (Moderate)
Gao's tree count comes to 1,608 trees across 10.72 km² of land, 29 points below the 30% tree-cover level considered healthy for this area, so roughly 78,785 more trees would close the gap.
Air quality detail
Air quality in Gao today: AQI 60, Moderate
Main pollutant: PM2.5 · Observed Nov 11, 06:00 local time via Open-Meteo / CAMS, US EPA index. Values in µg/m³.
Model estimate · no ground station nearby
Health signal
Unusually sensitive people should consider limiting long outdoor exertion.
PM2.5
14.0
PM10
28.4
NO₂
2.1
O₃
18.0
SO₂
0.5
CO
129.0
- Outdoor exercise
- Fine for most people; unusually sensitive people should take long or hard exercise easier
- Windows
- Fine to open; close them if you are sensitive to pollution
- Mask
- Not needed for most people
- Air purifier
- Worth running if you are sensitive
Over the last 7 days, the CAMS air-quality model put Gao's daily AQI at 97 on average, from 57 on Nov 5 to an hourly peak of 193 on Nov 8.
Where Gao stands: the most polluted cities in the world right now · the cleanest
Tree cover detail
Tree cover in Gao: Critically low
0.6% tree cover against a 30% healthy-neighborhood target, across 10.72 km² of land.
Trees in this area
1,608
Target trees
80,393
More trees needed
78,785
CO₂ if planted / yr
1,733 t
Deforestation · 2001–2025
How much forest has Gao lost?
There was almost no forest around Gao in 2000, so there has been almost nothing to lose since. Only fairly dense woodland counts as forest in these maps, so scattered street and garden trees don't show up here.
2017: satellite photo from January 2017 of a 5 × 5 km area in the city center.
These figures cover everything within 10 km of the city center, a wider area than the report above, because forest is usually lost at a city's edges.
Source: Hansen/UMD/Google/USGS/NASA, Global Forest Change (GFC-2025-v1.13); causes: WRI/Google DeepMind drivers of forest loss; both CC BY 4.0, summed by Airleaf for each area. Images: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data. How it's measured
In the same region
Measured cities near Gao
Same 2 km radius, same index — so they compare directly.
- Kaya371.2 km
Burkina Faso
- Tree cover
- 6%
- Air quality
- 69
- Niamey384.2 km
Niger
- Tree cover
- 24%
- Air quality
- 71
- Ouahigouya393.4 km
Burkina Faso
- Tree cover
- 13%
- Air quality
- 73
- Saaba458.1 km
Burkina Faso
- Tree cover
- 4%
- Air quality
- 91
- Ouagadougou463.0 km
Burkina Faso
- Tree cover
- 10%
- Air quality
- 69
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Frequently asked
Questions about Gao
What is the air quality (AQI) in Gao right now?
The latest reading for Gao shows an AQI of 60 (Moderate), observed Nov 11, 06:00 local time via Open-Meteo / CAMS, US EPA index. The main pollutant is PM2.5. Unusually sensitive people should consider limiting long outdoor exertion.
Is it safe to exercise outside in Gao today?
At AQI 60 (Moderate): fine for most people; unusually sensitive people should take long or hard exercise easier. Windows: fine to open; close them if you are sensitive to pollution. Masks: not needed for most people. The reading changes through the day, so check again before a long run or ride.
What has the air quality in Gao been like this week?
Over the last 7 days, the CAMS air-quality model put Gao's daily AQI at 97 on average, from 57 on Nov 5 to an hourly peak of 193 on Nov 8. On 2 of those days the average was above 100, unhealthy for sensitive groups.
How much forest has the area around Gao lost since 2001?
There was almost no forest around Gao in 2000, so there has been almost nothing to lose since. Only fairly dense woodland counts as forest in these maps, so scattered street and garden trees don't show up here.
What is the tree count in Gao?
Gao has an estimated 1,608 trees across the 10.72 km² of land measured — 0.6% tree cover, 29 percentage points short of the 30% tree-cover target set for this area.
How many more trees does Gao need?
Gao needs roughly 78,785 more trees to close a 29-point shortfall against its 30% tree-cover target — about 1,733 t of extra CO₂ absorbed per year once grown.
How are Gao's air quality and tree cover measured?
Air quality comes from ground monitoring stations via OpenAQ where one reports nearby, and otherwise, as here, from the Open-Meteo / CAMS model, which may differ from street-level monitors. Tree cover is measured from Sentinel-2 L2A (ESA Copernicus) via Earth Search satellite imagery at 10 m detail across a 2 km radius around Gao; the tree count is an estimate derived from that cover.
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