State and Local Air Monitoring Stations

Code of Federal Regulations, Title 40, Part 58, Ambient Air Quality Surveillance, Appendix D— Network Design for State and Local Air Monitoring Stations (SLAMS). U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, July 1992, pp. 158-172. 

Ozone data collected by CASTNET are complementary to the larger ozone data sets gathered by the State and Local Air Monitoring Stations (SLAMS) and National Air Monitoring Stations (NAMS) networks. Most air-quality samples at SLAMS/NAMS sites are located in urban areas, while CASTNET sites are in rural locations. Hourly ozone measurements are taken at each of the 50 sites operated by EPA. Data from these sites provide information to help characterize ozone transport issues and ozone exposure levels. 

Two main networks are differentiated in the USA the state and local air monitoring stations (SUAMS) and the national air monitoring stations (NAMS). The two networks mainly differ in their requirements with respect to area of coverage with more, smaller-scale representative monitoring sites within the SLAMS. The objectives, primarily for SLAMS, as laid out in CFR 40 [13] are to ... 

Periodic performance audits are required to validate the accuracy of the air-monitoring system. The Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) requires that performance audits be conducted at least once a year for criteria pollutant analyzers operated at state and local air monitoring stations (SLAMS). The EPA recommends that each analyzer be disconnected from the monitoring station manifold and be individually connected to the audit, from which it will receive the audit gas of known concentration. The audit gas concentrations are usually generated in a van, using a gas calibrator to dilute multiblend gases with zero air. 

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