A Perspective on Fostering the Use of Nontraditional Air Quality Data

1. A Perspective on Fostering the Use of Nontraditional Air Quality Data Michael Rizzo USEPA Region 5

2. EPA’s role in air quality • Public health agency • Science based • Healthy dose of policy • Integrate science and policy to better protect public health • Clean Air Act • Mandates the regulation of six criteria pollutants: O3, PM, NO2, SO2, Pband CO • Source emissions • Interstate transport • Acid Rain • Air Toxics • Stratospheric ozone • Permits and enforcement

3. EPA’s role in air quality • Headquarters offices (mostly in DC and RTP) • Policy oriented • Review and set National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) • Design national plans and promulgate the necessary regulations to implement the NAAQS and protect public health • Regional Offices • Representing specific geographic areas of the United States • Headquarters program implementation • Extramural activities • Every Region is different

4. EPA’s Structure with Regards to Air Quality • Office of Research and Development (ORD) • Conduct scientific research to support the program offices and Regions • Housed in labs around the country (most in RTP) • Look at a variety of air quality issues

5. What data are traditionally used? Ozone PM2.5

6. What data are traditionally used? • Ground based measurements • Collected data usually conform to data collected during health studies • Used for a wide variety of purposes • The more information the better • Networks have strict quality assurance requirements • Decent time resolution • Not always the best spatial resolution

7. Nontraditional data uses at EPA • Exceptional events • Fires • Saharan dust • Weight of evidence • Integrated Science Assessments, Risk and Exposure Analysis, Policy Assessment for some of the criteria pollutants

8. Nontraditional data uses at EPA • Relating satellite measurements to ground based measurements Taken from PM ISA (December 2009)

9. Current State of Things • Policy makers, however, still rely almost solely on traditional ground based measurements for • Attainment designations • Air Quality Index • State Implementation Plans • Ground truthing air quality models • Why? • Regulations • Current limitations of satellite data • Funding issues

10. Recent Emphasis to Enhance Air Monitoring Capability • Sensors and Apps • Innocentive Challenge • Science fiction is slowly becoming science fact • Large leaps in computing power and individual creativity and innovation • Concerns about public perception and expectations

11. What would help • More web based remote training sessions on satellite data and how to access and utilize the data for regional office staff • Continued development of analyses using satellite data that act as weight of evidence for attainment decisions in SIPs and aid in the design of effective control strategies to help States meet the NAAQS • Continued development of analyses to confirm influences from exceptional events (e.g. dust and fires) • On the modeling front, develop uncertainty estimates for deterministic models like CMAQ • Development of sensor technology to the point where satellite monitoring could be classified as Federal Equivalent Method