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DEVELOPMENT OF QUALITY ASSURANCE AND QUALITY CONTROL GUIDANCE FOR GROUND-BASED REMOTE SENSORS FOR USE IN REGULATORY MONITORING
Citation:
Crescenti, G.H. DEVELOPMENT OF QUALITY ASSURANCE AND QUALITY CONTROL GUIDANCE FOR GROUND-BASED REMOTE SENSORS FOR USE IN REGULATORY MONITORING. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/A-95/116 (NTIS PB96114574).
Description:
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) authority for enhanced monitoring activities is provided for in Title I, Section 182 of the Clean Air Act Amendment of 1990. or example, the Photochemical Assessment Monitoring Station (PAMS) network is one such program which requires extensive data collection in ozone nonattainment areas which are classified as serious, severe or extreme. he agencies responsible for acquiring these data must include atmospheric boundary layer profiles of wind and temperature. he use of ground-based remote sensors such as sodars, radars, and radio acoustic sounding systems (RASS) are being considered as viable tools for PAMS and other regulatory activities. owever, there is a distinct void in current EPA guidance on quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC) procedures on the use of these instruments. he 1995 Ground-Based Remote Sensor Characterization Study was created to help fill in those gaps. he study was conducted in April 1995 at the Boulder Atmospheric Observatory (BAO) in Erie, Colorado. ata were acquired from three commercially available sodars, a radar wind profiler and RASS, and a suite of in-situ instrumentation on the 300 m BAO tower. his paper is divided into two sections. he first section describes the experimental setup and the data acquired at the BAO. he second section describes how these data will be used to develop guidance and procedures on siting, installation, acceptance testing, calibration, performance audits, routine operation, maintenance, real-time quality control, tear down, refurbishment, data processing techniques, and expected performance statistics as a function of atmospheric conditions and sensor configuration. his information will help ensure that groundbased remote sensors acquire high quality and scientifically defensible data on a routine basis for all regulatory applications.