STI developed workbooks and conducted several workshops across the U.S. focusing on Photochemical Assessment Monitoring Stations (PAMS)-enhanced ozone monitoring and PM2.5 data analysis. STI’s PAMS training program offers formal training in how to quality assure and make the best use of one of the largest air quality data sets ever collected on a routine basis in virtually all major metropolitan areas. The workbooks and workshops explain how to ensure the creation of high quality data sets; characterize ambient concentrations and formation processes; evaluate emission inventories; characterize the contribution of important sources to ambient concentrations; quantify PM, ozone, and precursor trends; assess pollutant transport; and assess visibility. The original workshop was sponsored by and delivered to the U.S. EPA’s Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards (OAQPS) in 1995. This popular workshop was subsequently conducted in five other cities around the country. PAMS workbooks are available online at http://www.epa.gov/oar/oaqps/pams/analysis/. PAMS and PM2.5 workbooks are also available from the U.S. EPA and STI.
STI scientists worked with Roland Draxler at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to train Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) staff to produce air parcel back trajectories by executing HYSPLIT (an air parcel trajectory model developed by Draxler) on a local UNIX platform. This training course focused on how to generate and execute the batch runs and how to import data sets. STI scientists created and provided a user's guide detailing the generation and execution of HYSPLIT batch runs. We also developed and demonstrated a procedure allowing TCEQ staff to electronically send meteorological data sets required for individual batch runs.
STI is teamed with Vaisala Meteorological Systems and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) to commercialize NOAA’s radar wind profiling and RASS technology. A radar wind profiler is a remote sensor that measures winds and temperatures in the lower atmosphere. STI routinely trains air quality agency staff in instrument operations; selecting and setting sampling configurations; data acquisition, processing, validation, and interpretation; software usage; and data management. Based on over a decade of experience operating radar wind profilers, this multi-day course conducted at client sites allows STI specialists to transfer their knowledge and understanding to radar wind profiler users. Each student is provided with a workbook of wind and temperature data showing meteorological phenomena (e.g., sea breeze development, evolution and structure of the mixed layer, and cold frontal passage) and problems that may appear in radar wind profiler data (e.g., ground clutter).
STI scientists have designed and taught university courses, have given technical seminars at many universities, and frequently lecture at the college level. STI staff taught "Transportation Policy", a three-credit undergraduate course offered through the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at the University of California, Davis, and continue to teach "Atmospheric Pollution: Air Quality Management-Policy and Practice", a three-credit course and degree requirement for undergraduates majoring in Environmental Studies at the University of Hawaii. STI staff also assist in curriculum review and development. STI scientists reviewed courses offered by Baylor University's Aviation Sciences Department and assisted the university in developing three new courses. STI also prepared and delivered course material for a U.S. EPA-sponsored Air Pollution Training Institute data analysis workshop.Ê STI staff developed and presented a short course on air quality forecasting at the 2002 and 2003 U.S. EPA's National Air Quality Conferences on Forecasting and Public Outreach.