BEIJING - The Chinese capital began releasing hourly air pollution data on Thursday to address growing public concern over air quality.

The Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Center will publish readings for the levels of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and PM 10 - particulate matter smaller than 10 micrograms - detected by its 27 air quality monitoring stations.

The data, released hourly on the center's website and micro blog, "is provided to better serve the residents of the capital", said Zhao Yue, deputy director of the center.