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EPA's mobile monitoring of source emissions and near-source impact
Citation:
SHORES, R. C. EPA's mobile monitoring of source emissions and near-source impact. Presented at AWMA measurements conference, Los Angeles, CA, October 15, 2010.
Impact/Purpose:
proposal for journal article
Description:
Real-time ambient monitoring onboard a moving vehicle is a unique data collection approach applied to characterize large-area sources, such as major roadways, and detect fugitive emissions from distributed sources, such as leaking oil wells. EPA's Office of Research and Development, National Risk Management Research Laboratory has developed a mobile monitoring program called Geospatial Monitoring of Air Pollution (GMAP), with two focuses: (1) Source Impact Monitoring (GMAP-SIM), which involves high spatial-resolution multipollutant concentration mapping surrounding significant sources, such as roadways or rail yards, and (2) Remote Emissions Monitoring (GMAP-REM), which combines mobile measurements of specific trace compounds (e.g., methane) with plume dispersion modeling to estimate source emission rates. Both GMAP-SIM and GMAP-REM utilize advanced monitoring instrumentation (e.g., cavity ring-down spectroscopy or quantum cascade laser technology for trace-gas measurements) and high-resolution global position systems to collect accurate 1 Hz data while moving at typical driving speeds. The development of this research program and results from recent GMAP-SIM near-road field studies and GMAP-REM fugitive emissions field studies will be discussed.