Data quality and uncertainty in fine particulate monitoring

A. Fassò 1, O. Nicolis 1, V. Gianelle 2
1 Department IGI, University of Bergamo
Via Marconi 5, 24044 Dalmine BG, Italy
tel. +39 035 2052 323, fax. +39 035 562 779
e-mail: alessandro.fasso@unibg.it
2 ARPA Lombardia, Milan, Italy

Abstract
In  order  to  assess  compliance  with  air  quality  standards,  European  regulations  prescribe  to  monitoring  the concentration of particulate matters and to control both annual and daily averages. The measurement accuracy varies according to  monitor type, temperature and pollution level, often in a complex nonlinear manner. Consequently, comparisons,  threshold exceedances  interpretation and compliance assessment are often difficult. In  this  paper, we  consider  the  displaced  dynamical  calibration  (DDC) model which  is  able  to  calibrate  biased readings  by  using  displaced  data  obtained  by  reference  instruments. Moreover, we  discuss  the  uncertainty  of annual averages of daily concentrations. An application to the Northern Italy air quality network allows us to draw some empirical conclusions.

Keywords: fine particulate matters, TEOM, gravimetric, calibration, state-space modelling, quality standard assessment

In: McRoberts, R. et al. (eds).  Proceedings of the joint meeting of The 6th International Symposium On Spatial Accuracy Assessment In Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences and The 15th Annual Conference of The International Environmetrics Society, June 28 – July 1 2004, Portland, Maine, USA.