Development of the USEPA Quality Assurance Guidance for the Collection of Meteorological Data Using Passive Radiometers

Development of the USEPA Quality Assurance Guidance for the Collection of Meteorological Data Using Passive Radiometers Robert A. Baxter, CCM T&B Systems, Inc. Herman Wong Robert Elleman USEPARegion 10

Overview • Background • Guidance development process • Contents • Completion of the document

Background EPA meteorological guidance documents 2000 Meteorological Monitoring Guidance for Regulatory Modeling Applications Updating the “On-Site Guidance” 2008 Quality Assurance Handbook for Air Pollution Measurement Systems, Volume IV: Meteorological Measurements Provided updates to work performed by Lockhart and others detailing QA fundamentals and procedures Need for additional remote sensing instrumentation guidance

Instrumentation Profiling radiometers Passive measurement technique Continuous measurement profiles Temperature, humidity and liquid water profiles

Guidance Development Process Develop a first draft document based on principles in the existing documents Implement the draft guidance in a real-world application Observe the measurement and QAPP development process Observe the implementation of the guidance measurement and QA process Modify the guidance based on the observations Obtain a peer review of the final draft document Finalize the guidance document

Document Contents Fundamentals Performance Characteristics Monitoring Goals and Objectives Siting and Exposure Installation and Acceptance Testing Quality Assurance and Quality Control Data Processing and Management Recommendations for Data Collection References

Document ContentsFundamentals Operation is based on the principle that all matter with a temperature other than absolute zero emits microwave radiation The spectrum and intensity is determined by the physical temperature and structure of the matter Temperature  50 – 60 GHz Oxygen absorption Specific frequency determines the effective volume of the measurement

Document ContentsFundamentals Single Channel Elevation Scanning Multiple Channel

Document ContentsFundamentals Scanning single channel

Document ContentsFundamentals Multi-channel Sfc 1 7 2 3 4 5 6 Channel

Quality Assurance and Quality Control Calibration methods System and performance audits Standard operating procedures Operational checks and preventive maintenance Corrective action and reporting

Performance Audits Not amenable to traditional “hands-on” type standards comparison Techniques for RASS Tethered sonde Radiosonde

Performance Audits • Performance evaluation criteria • Quantifiable differences between the two systems • Assessment of the detection of significant inflections in the profiles • Assessment of the accuracy of the reported lapse rates • Assess the significance of the comparisons not meeting the suggested criteria

Performance Audits

Summary • Profiling radiometers provide a continuous measure of temperature profiles • The resulting data may not match what is obtained from a radiosonde • Important to understand if the differences are significant • Assess the value of continuous measurements versus infrequent or derived data from other sources • Given the above, the document provides guidance for users on the operation, quality assurance, quality control and data validation of information obtained from profiling radiometers

Process Completion • Develop a first draft document based on principles in the existing documents • Implement the draft guidance in a real-world application • Observe the measurement and QAPP development process • Observe the implementation of the guidance measurement and QA process • Modify the guidance based on the observations • Obtain a peer review of the final draft document • Finalize the guidance document

Development of the USEPA Quality Assurance Guidance for the Collection of Meteorological Data Using Passive Radiometers Robert A. Baxter, CCM T&B Systems, Inc. Herman Wong Robert Elleman USEPARegion 10

Development of the USEPA Quality Assurance Guidance for the Collection of Meteorological Data Using Passive Radiometers

Development of the USEPA Quality Assurance Guidance for the Collection of Meteorological Data Using Passive Radiometers

Presentation Transcript

The Status of Quality Assurance

Using Quality Assurance Standards

Data Collection and Quality Assurance

Meteorological data collection

Quality Assurance: Looking for Quality Data

Development of Quality Assurance in BH HE

An Overview of EPA’s Quality Assurance Guidance for Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Data

Guidance of data collection for QVRA in WP5

Data Quality Assurance

Quality Assurance of Upper Air Meteorological Data

Quality Assurance of the DLESE Community Collection

ALO Assurance Data Collection

Role Of Quality Assurance In Software Development

The Importance of Quality Assurance

Data Quality Assurance/ Quality Control

Quality Assurance: Looking for Quality Data

Development of Quality Assurance in BH HE

Quality Assurance of Upper Air Meteorological Data

FP 076 Quality assurance of hydrological data

Data Quality Assurance

The Importance Of Quality Assurance In Software Development