Ozone Indicators Determined at Rural Sites in the Eastern United States by two Monitoring Networks

Abstract

Ozone levels at Clean Air Status andTrends Network (CASTNet) and nearby rurally-designatedState and Local Air Monitoring Stations (SLAMS) siteslocated in the eastern United States (U.S.) arecompared using daily indicators (i.e., maximum, range,and SUM06) based on hourly O₃ measurements. Comparisons are also made using monthly and summertimethree-month SUM06 determinations aggregated from dailydata. Comparison of O₃ indicators at the pairedCASTNet-SLAMS sites generally shows better agreementfor O₃ maximum than for range or SUM06. Thehighest correlation of daily O₃ indicators occursfor paired sites that are separated by less than 100miles, and the correlation diminishes with increasingseparation distance. Correlation coefficients exceed0.70 in 49% of the comparisons of maximum, in23% of range comparisons and in 5% ofSUM06 comparisons, suggesting that substitution ofSLAMS for CASTNet O₃ measurements would fail tocapture a substantial amount of the variability inO₃ indicators present at the CASTNet sites. Correlations of O₃ indicators at CASTNet andpaired nearby SLAMS sites are ≥0.80 in a relativelysmall number of cases. Despite the high correlationin even these cases, O₃ behavior at paired sitesis not identical and shows systematic differences thatare reflected in the O₃ minimum, hourly averageconcentrations, and the monthly and three-month SUM06. Ozone measurements at nearby rurally-designated SLAMSsites may not capture the `rural' nature of the airquality being monitored at CASTNet sites and, in mostcases, may not be sufficiently representative of theconcentration at CASTNet sites to permit O₃measurements at SLAMS sites to be used in lieu ofmeasurements at CASTNet sites. As a result, if ruralO₃ concentration data are needed, then O₃monitoring at carefully chosen, rurally representativesites is recommended.