Overview

The Air Quality Monitoring Team (AQMT) at UC Davis has operated the Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments (IMPROVE) ambient speciated particulate monitoring network since its inception in 1988. Beginning in 2015, AQMT took on the laboratory analysis and data handling for the Chemical Speciation Network (CSN). These two networks encompass over 300 sites delivering over 60 PM2.5 species across the country every third day. This seminar will discuss the operation of the IMPROVE and CSN networks, the data they produce, and some of the interesting findings that can be discovered with the data sets. Challenges unique to large-scale, long-term, remote monitoring will be highlighted, along with selected research projects that the AQMT conducts to improve and understand the networks and their data.

About the Speaker

Mr. Sean Raffuse is the Associate Director for Software and Data at the Air Quality Research Center at UC Davis. He has been with the group since 2013 and oversees data management, data validation, and software development for the Air Quality Monitoring Team. Prior to that, he conducted applied research at Sonoma Technology, Inc. for 13 years. Mr. Raffuse’s research focuses on developing, improving, and applying fire and smoke models through the use of new data sets and information systems, and developing and using satellite-derived data products. He received his M.S. in environmental engineering from Washington University in St. Louis in 2003.