Atmospheric Integrated Research Monitoring Network
Project DescriptionThe Atmospheric Integrated Research Monitoring Network (AIRMoN) is an
array of stations designed to provide a research-based foundation for the
routine operations of the nation's deposition monitoring networks -- the
National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP) for wet deposition, and the
Clean Air Status and Tends Network (CASTNet) for dry. A subprogram is
specifically designed to detect the benefits of emissions controls
mandated by the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, and to quantify these
benefits in terms of deposition to sensitive areas.
AIRMoN combines two previously-existing deposition research networks that
have appropriate characteristics (previously known as the MAP3S
precipitation chemistry network and the CORE/satellite Dry Deposition
Inferential Method network) under a single operational umbrella, so as to
generate a new monitoring activity to which on-line modeling and analysis
can be easily applied. An air-sampling component of AIRMoN provides some
unique information on changes in air quality.
AIRMoN has been endorsed, in principle, by both the National Acid
Precipitation Assessment Program and NOAA. To get started on the endeavor,
the daily-sampling precipitation chemistry research program, previously
operated under the auspices of the Department of Energy was transferred to
NOAA (the MAP3S program). Plans for AIRMoN were endorsed during 1992 by
NOAA and by the Department of Commerce, and were accepted by OMB as an
important contribution to NAPAP and to the debate about the consequences
of the Clean Air Act Amendments controls. The activity was subsumed into a
funding package now well recognized NOAA's "Health of the Atmosphere"
initiative, and is widely viewed as a central piece in NOAA's
"environmental stewardship" portfolio.
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