RPO Monitoring Issues

1
RPO Monitoring Issues

• by Marc Pitchford, Ph.D.
• WRAP Ambient Monitoring
• Reporting Forum Co-chair

2
RPO Monitoring Data Analysis Activities

• Assess data adequacy supplement if needed
• FCIA routine aerosol speciation data for tracking
  trends (IMPROVE)
• Non-FCIA aerosol speciation data for spatial
  coverage (IMPROVE protocol, Speciation Trends,
  etc)
• Intensive air quality met. monitoring for model
  input validation

3
RPO Monitoring Data Analysis Activities
(continued)

• Data archival communications
• Available databases (IMPROVE, AIRS, NWS)
• Approaches (catalog, link, ingest, etc.)
• Data validation documentation

4
RPO Monitoring Data Analysis Activities
(continued)

• Data assessments
• Descriptive (statistical graphical summaries)
• Relational (correlation, scatter plots, etc)
• Consistency closure (fine mass, optical,
  extinction budgets
• Trends (official Haze Rule trends, major aerosol
  components precursors, met.)
• Source apportionment (receptor models using
  composition, spatial/temporal patterns,
  trajectories)
• Regional air quality model validation (average,
  best worst days)
• Refinement of natural haze levels

5
RPO Monitoring Data Analysis Activities
(continued)

• Reporting
• Routine data reports
• Interpretive reports on causes of haze
• Format, timing, frequency of reports to meet
  RPO, state, tribal needs

6
RPO MonitoringIssues of Common Interest

• What source apportionment methods should be used?
  
• What role do the RPOs, states, tribes, etc have
  with respect to reporting data to EPA?
• Which trajectory methods uses of trajectory
  analysis seem best?
• How do we demonstrate progress, show interstate
  impacts estimate natural levels?

7
RPO Monitoring Over-Arching Issues

• Opportunities for common /or compatible
• Monitoring systems
• Data set databases
• Assessment tools
• Requirement for approaches to conduct
  cross-RPO-border data assessments

8
RPO Monitoring Over-Arching Issues

• Coordinated requests to mitigate national-scale
  monitoring deficiencies --- examples
• Long-term need for a national network of radar
  wind profilers to improve modeling performance
• Routine quantitative estimates of dust smoke
  from outside of the US by a system of satellite
  remote sensing, dispersion modeling, surface
  observations
• Methods for continued inter-RPO communications