German Radiation Levels – Gamma Dose Rate (BfS ODL)

Get official radiation measurements for Germany: the ambient gamma dose rate (Ortsdosisleistung, ODL) from about 1,700 automatic measuring stations of the Bundesamt für Strahlenschutz (BfS, German Federal Office for Radiation Protection) – the network that would raise the alarm after a nuclear incident.

Ask for the latest hourly value of every station, the hourly values of the last 7 days, or daily values for about the last 12 months. Filter by federal state, town or postcode, station, or near any location ("the 3 stations closest to my address"). No API key, no scraping, no login.

What can I use it for?

• 📱 Apps, dashboards & smart home – show the current radiation level near the user, next to weather and air quality.
• 🚨 Monitoring & alerts – run it every hour on a schedule with "Only values at or above" to get notified only when a station reads unusually high.
• 🏭 Industry, insurance & ESG – document background radiation around sites, plants or properties.
• 📰 Journalism & research – compare regions (granite areas like the Bavarian Forest or the Ore Mountains read higher), study rain-related peaks.
• 🤖 AI agents – call it as a tool via the Apify MCP server: "What is the radiation level in Munich right now?"

Data you get

One row per station (latest) or per station and hour/day (history):

Field	Meaning
stationName, stationId, stationCode, postalCode	The station (town name, international id like DEZ0001, BfS code)
state, stateCode, latitude, longitude, altitudeM	Where it is
status, operating	In operation, out of service or test mode
start, end, interval	Measuring period in UTC (1h or 1d)
doseRate	Ambient gamma dose rate in µSv/h
doseRateCosmic, doseRateTerrestrial	Cosmic and terrestrial parts (latest values)
validated	true = checked by the BfS, false = not yet checked
distanceKm	Distance to your location (when you give coordinates)

A summary (mean, min and max, the 10 highest stations, averages by state) is saved in the key-value store under OUTPUT.

Example input

{
  "period": "latest",
  "latitude": "48.137",
  "longitude": "11.575",
  "maxStations": 3
}

Hourly history for two stations:

{
  "period": "last7DaysHourly",
  "stationIds": ["DEZ0001", "DEZ3498"]
}

Example output

{
  "stationId": "DEZ3498",
  "stationCode": "091891141",
  "stationName": "Chieming",
  "postalCode": "83339",
  "stateCode": "BY",
  "state": "Bayern",
  "latitude": 47.88,
  "longitude": 12.54,
  "altitudeM": 495,
  "status": "in Betrieb",
  "operating": true,
  "start": "2026-10-08T05:00:00Z",
  "end": "2026-10-08T06:00:00Z",
  "interval": "1h",
  "doseRate": 0.127,
  "doseRateCosmic": 0.049,
  "doseRateTerrestrial": 0.078,
  "unit": "µSv/h",
  "validated": true
}

How to read the values

• Natural background in Germany is about 0.05 to 0.18 µSv/h, depending on the local rock and soil and on altitude (more cosmic radiation higher up).
• Short peaks after rain are normal: rain washes natural radon decay products out of the air.
• Since 1 July 2025 the BfS uses a revised calculation method, which raised values slightly.
• New hourly values are usually published within about an hour; unchecked values (validated: false) may still be corrected.

Pricing

You pay only per row returned – no monthly fee. The latest values of all ~1,700 stations are one row each.

Source and license

Data: Bundesamt für Strahlenschutz (BfS), ODL-Messnetz, published as open data under the BfS free data licences (Datenlizenz Deutschland – Namensnennung – Version 2.0 / GeoNutzV). Please name the source when you publish the data and present it factually. This tool is independent and not affiliated with or endorsed by the BfS. It is not a warning system – in an emergency follow the official authorities.