Met One Instruments BAM-1020 Beta Attenuation Mass Monitor US-EPA PM2.5 Federal Equivalent Method Winter Campaign Test Results
Recently enacted regulations by the US-EPA provide a clear approach for manufacturers of continuous particulate monitors to obtain designation as PM2.5 Federal Equivalent Methods (FEM). FEM designation regulations require demonstration of substantial correlation with minimal additive and multiplicative bias between Candidate Method Monitors, such as the Met One Instruments BAM-1020, and PM2.5 Federal Reference Method (FRM) Samplers in five testing campaigns across four geographically diverse sites in winter and in summer.
For the winter test campaign Met One Instruments deployed triplicate BAM-1020 PM2.5 monitors in Bakersfield California, near Salt Lake City Utah and near Detroit Michigan. Triplicate PM2.5 FRM samplers were also deployed at each of these test sites. All testing locations were pre-approved by the US-EPA as they provide normal, diverse and challenging ambient conditions likely to be encountered in continuous PM2.5 monitoring. Conditions encountered at these test sites included widely varying PM2.5 concentrations between 0 and ~100 μg/m3, widely varying ambient temperatures between -25 °C and +30 °C, and nitrates and other semi-volatile component levels known to exceed 30 percent of measured concentration levels. Comparison tests between the BAM-1020 Candidate FEM and FRM at these three sites were successfully completed in March, 2007.
Details of the testing protocols, including design, operation, and quality control procedures, will be presented. The results of the comparison field tests for the winter sites will be presented. It is anticipated that the results of the summer test campaigns will also be available at the time of presentation.