A - C
type: Concept

AIRMON
type: Concept
in scheme: projects
definition: The 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. For more information, link to "http://www.arl.noaa.gov/research/programs/airmon.html"