Data quality and uncertainty in fine particulate monitoring

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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.