The Atmospheric Monitoring Station (AMS) at UCC
Air Quality
The UCC campus provides perfect urban background conditions for ambient air quality monitoring as required by the national air quality monitoring programme of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Thus an atmospheric monitoring station (AMS) was established on the North Mall campus and equipped with commercial NOX and O3 analysers, as well as a particle beta attenuation (BAM) monitor (PM2.5). The field monitoring initiative was also supported by the EPA, who incorporated UCC as a partner in the national EPA air quality monitoring network. The EPA supports the monitoring activities through a rigorous quality assurance programme in accordance with EU standards (CAFÉ Directive 2008/50/EC).
Weather
A calibrated automatic weather station, is part of the monitoring activities. Validated by the national meteorological services (Met Éireann), the mast delivers data to the Met Éireann network on a daily basis.
Based on its location and the available instrumentation and IT network, the AMS is an expandable research platform and ideal for testing new innovative trace gas detection technology in the field.