The Role of Research Measurement Networks as Contributions to Federal Assessments of Acid Deposition

Abstract

Three demands for wet-deposition data and dry-deposition data are particularly important at the present time: 1) the analysis of long-term trends to evaluate the consequences of emission changes, 2) the measurement of deposition loadings to determine impacts to receptors, and 3) model development and the analysis of atmospheric source-receptor phenomena. The diversity of these demands has led to deployment of a variety of networks to satisfy different measurement requirements. Consideration of this diversity of network goals has led to a distinction between research-oriented networks and routine measurement networks. Research-oriented networks generally contain a comparatively small number of stations, and make relatively intensive measurements with fine time resolution, to focus on relevant processes. These networks use relatively advanced measurement techniques and require much-greater scientific attention than routine measurement networks. Routine networks usually have a greater number of simpler stations to provide finer spatial resolution, but have a coarser time resolution; they yield a more-descriptive picture of wet and dry deposition over periods of weeks or months. Both types of networks have their place in the overall measurement effort. In this paper, the relationship between existing research arrays and routine-measurement arrays is discussed, and a rationale is suggested for operation of the research arrays—the Multistate Power Production Pollution Study (MAP3S) (for wet deposition) and COre Research Establishment (CORE) (for dry deposition) research measurement networks.