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