Summary of Report: Measurement of Air Quality

Measurement of Air Quality

Three classes of Measurement of Air Quality

 Measurement of Emissions

- Called “stack sampling” when a stationary source is analyzed.

 Meteorological Measurements

- Measures wind speed, wind direction, lapse rates, and etc. to determine how pollutants travel from
source to recipient.

 Measurement of Ambient Air Quality

- Measures the pollutant concentrations through advance technologies like readout device.

Measurement of Particulate Matter

 Requires a high-volume sampler to measure the particulates for TSP and PM.
 A high-volume sampler operates like a vacuum cleaner by pumping air at a high rate through a
filter.
 Air flow through the filter is measured with a flow meter.
 Measurement of 10 micrometer particles requires about 10 times the air flow in a high-volume
sampler.
 Cascade impactor – used to measure fine particles including respirable particles less than 1
micrometer in diameter.
 Nephelometer – makes continuous measurements of real-time data of scattered light of fine
particles in air.

Measurement of Gases
 Usually measured by reacting the gas chemically with a colorimetric reagent and measuring the
intensity of the reaction product color.
 Gas Bubbler – measurement of gaseous air pollutants.
 Nondispersive infrared spectrophotometry (Nondispersive IR) – used for measuring carbon
monoxide (CO) in relation with routine automobile inspection and maintenance.