Total suspended particulate (TSP) and suspended sulfate (SS) levels have been sampled since November 1973 at five isolated sites across the Tennessee Valley. A method for beginning to analyze such data is demonstrated. This beginning is intended to lead finally to information on pollution sources, an objective that may require modeling meteorological influences and resolving sources. Analysis with this objective, which can be very complex, is effectively begun by using the method demonstrated in this paper. Applied to the TSP and SS data, this method suggests agricultural contributions to TSP levels, distant-source contributions to SS levels, and various influences of the meteorology. This method also shows deficiencies in the data collection that prevent the building of better, more quantitative models. One deficiency in this data set is the sixth-day sampling, which is not frequent enough to allow monthly variations in pollution levels to be distinguished from more rapid variations. Thus, data analysis would be more effective if the sampling frequency were increased and, further, if particle size and chemical composition were better resolved.

Issued March 1979. Includes bibliographical references (p. 23).