RPO Monitoring Issues
by Marc Pitchford, Ph.D.
WRAP Ambient Monitoring &
Reporting Forum Co-chair
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
RPO Monitoring & Data
Analysis Activities (continued)
• Data archival & communications
– Available databases (IMPROVE, AIRS, NWS)
– Approaches (catalog, link, ingest, etc.)
– Data validation & documentation
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
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
RPO Monitoring
Issues 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?
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
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