In the spring of 1988 an interagency consortium of Federal Land Managers and the Environmental Protection Agency initiated a national visibility and aerosol monitoring network to track spatial and temporal trends of visibility and visibility‐reducing particles. The monitoring network consists of 36 stations located mostly in the western United States. The major visibility‐reducing aerosol species, sulfates, nitrates, organics, light‐absorbing carbon, and wind‐blown dust are monitored as well as light scattering and extinction. Sulfates and organics are responsible for most of the extinction at most locations throughout the United States, while at sites in southern California nitrates are dominant. In the eastern United States, sulfates contribute to about two thirds of the extinction. In almost all cases, extinction and the major aerosol types are highest in the summer and lowest during the winter months.

In the spring of 1985 an interagency consortium of federal land management agencies and the Environmental Protection Agency established the Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments (IMPROVE) network to assess visibility and aerosol monitoring for the purpose of tracking spatial and temporal trends of visibility and visibility‐impairing particles in rural areas. The program was initiated with 20 monitoring sites and was expanded to 165 sites between 2000 and 2003. This paper reports on fine aerosol data collected in the year 2001 at 143 sites. The major fine (dp < 2.5 μm) particle aerosol species, sulfates, nitrates, organics, light‐absorbing carbon, and wind‐blown dust, and coarse gravimetric mass are monitored, and at some sites, light scattering and/or extinction are measured. Sulfates, carbon, and crustal material are responsible for most of the fine mass at the majority of locations throughout the United States, while at sites in southern California and the midwestern United States, nitrates can contribute significantly. In the eastern United States, sulfates contribute between 50 and 60% of the fine mass. Sulfate concentrations tend to be highest in the summer months while organic concentrations can be high in the spring, summer, or fall seasons, depending upon fire‐related emissions. However, at the two urban sites, Phoenix, Arizona, and Puget Sound, Washington, organics peak during the winter months. Nitrate concentrations also tend to be highest during the winter months. During the spring months in many areas of the western United States, fine soil can contribute as much as 40% of fine mass. The temporal changes in soil concentration that occur simultaneously over much of the western United States including the Rocky Mountain region suggest a large source region, possibly long‐range transport of Asian dust.

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IMPLICATIONSAlthough the urban PM 10 concentrations reported in the AIRS database show a decreasing trend, no decrease was observed for either PM 10 or PM 2.5 concentrations at IM-PROVE sites with continuous records from 1988 to 1993. This may indicate that the regional background is remaining constant.Many of the samples collected at Shenandoah during the summer showed a significant fraction, up to one-half, of the sulfur in particles larger than 2.5 µm. Some sulfur episodes in the East would be missed if PM 10 sampling is replaced by PM 2.5 sampling. This has implications on shifting from a PM 10 to PM 2.5 standard in the East. ISSN 1047-3289 J. Air & Waste Manage. Assoc. 47: 194-203 TECHNICAL PAPER

During the winter and summer months of 1990 a special study called Project MOHAVE (measurement of haze and visual effects) was carried out with the principle objective of attributing aerosol species to extinction and scattering and the aerosol species to sources and/or source regions. The study area included much of southern California and Nevada, Arizona, and Utah; however, the intensive monitoring sites and primary focus of the study was on the Colorado Plateau of northern Arizona, southern Nevada, and Utah. This paper reports on the apportionment of various aerosol species to measured fine and coarse mass concentrations and these species to scattering and extinction. The study is unique in that a number of “ambient” integrating nephelometers were operated to measure the ambient scattering coefficient, while transmissometers were used to measure atmospheric extinction. Comparison of measured scattering, extinction, and aerosol species concentration, both statistically and theoretically, allows for an estimate of scattering and absorption efficiencies. Analysis suggests that using elemental carbon, derived from thermal optical techniques, to estimate absorption may significantly underestimate absorption. Using elemental carbon, absorption is estimated to be 5% of extinction, while direct measurements of absorption suggest that it is about 30% of measured extinction. Furthermore, because light absorption by soil is usually not accounted for, soil extinction is underestimated by about 30%.