Presentation from EPA Transboundary Research Workshop, Galway, 8th and 9th September 2010.

1. Ireland’s Transboundary Monitoring Network and EMEP Strategy Michael Geever, NUI, Galway

2. Background - Europe 1979 Geneva UN Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP) Several protocols agreed: Sulphur reduction, NOx, VOCs, heavy metals, POPs, etc. European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme (EMEP) EMEP Main objective: “regularly provide governments and subsidiary bodies with qualified scientific information” Emissions: collection of emission data Measurements: air and precipitation quality Modelling: atmospheric transport and deposition

3. Background - Ireland Initially monitoring sites run by Met Eireann Valentia (1980) Mace Head (Ozone since 1988) Turloch Hill, The Burren, Ridge of Capard (1991, 1997 to 2003) EMEP monitoring strategy 2004 – 2009 Three levels of monitoring sites: Level 1: long-term basic chemical and physical measurements Level 2: further chemical speciation, higher temporal resolution Level 3: Research driven, campaign data Strategy required four Level 1 sites for Ireland

4. Transboundary site development in Ireland Project developed through the EPA/ERC (Environmental Research Centre) Key considerations: Geographical coverage Access Automated operation and management Co-operation with Met Eireann Chemical analysis of filter and precipitation samples Site network complements the EPA Air Quality Monitoring

5. Transboundary Sites Carnsore Point EPA Wexford EPA, Johnstown Castle Oak Park Teagasc Malin Head Met Eireann Glenveagh NPWS Mace Head NUI, Galway

6. Instrumentation at Transboundary sites

7. Transboundary Monitoring Network System developed and deployed in 2004 Automated instrument control and data acquisition Standard operating procedures for filter changes, sample collection and instrument maintenance developed System for regular transmission of data to central server Requirement for ongoing work Further consolidate established sites Continuous running and maintenance of sites Analysis of data sets Further development of sites and measurements

8. Current work Fellowship: “Instrumentation, Data Systems and Analysis” Operational support for existing measurements Regular site visits Instrument maintenance and calibration Documentation – site and instrument operational logs Data systems Further development of data acquisition systems Development of data transmission and archival Development of data visualization systems Analysis and reporting Analysis of existing data sets Development of scientific relevant research Publication of results in scientific press

9. Data Systems Development Evaluate existing systems Old PC’s running MS Windows 2000 Data acquisition and local visualization software: Labview Data transmission to central server for archival New developments New PC’s running Linux (Centos 5) Development of data acquisition applications Development of local data visualization – R scripts Regular data transmission to central server – rsync Preliminary automated data processing – R scripts Online data visualization on web site: www.txb.ie

10. Data Systems Overview

11. Malin Head – Met Eireann

12. Malin Head

13. Malin Head - Transboundary

14. Malin Head - instruments

15. Carnsore Point – aerial view

16. Carnsore Point – lab location

17. Carnsore Point - labs

18. Carnsore Point - labs

19. Carnsore Point - instruments

20. Future Work Complete instrumentation and data systems Establish regular schedule of calibrations Data analysis – historic and new data Further web site development – online real-time data visualization Provide quality assured data to EMEP database Measurement site development Research development