The Air Quality Monitoring Team (AQMT) at UC Davis has operated the Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments (IMPROVE) ambient speciated particulate monitoring network since its inception in 1988. Beginning in 2015, AQMT took on the laboratory analysis and data handling for the Chemical Speciation Network (CSN). These two networks encompass over 300 sites delivering over 60 PM2.5 species across the country every third day.
The AQRC Sample Handling Lab serving IMPROVE network has been equipped with a benchtop MTL environmentally controlled weighing chamber that provides compliant environment (Quality Assurance Guidance Document 2.12) for ambient air quality research. Air velocities, temperature, dew point, and airborne particle counts are controlled and below their regulatory thresholds.
Rotating Drum Impactor (RDI) samplers collect size-segregated samples with variable time resolution. Multiple non-destructive analyses of RDI samples are available, including synchrotron-induced X-Ray Fluorescence (SXRF) that provides quantitative elemental data of elements.
