Publisher's Synopsis
In June 2013, President Obama released his Climate Action Plan. The Plan calls for a range of activities to help mitigate the impacts of carbon pollution, prepare for and adapt to those impacts that cannot be avoided, and enhance international efforts to reduce the harmful global effects of climate change. Success in each of the Plan's three components will require access to and application of the highest quality atmospheric science. Fortunately, as a result of decades of attention to the issue of air quality generally - from ozone and carbon dioxide to soot and other particulates - the United States is in good position to address the added observational and modeling challenges posed by climate change. Federal agencies and state and local partners invest hundreds of millions of dollars annually to maintain and operate the Nation's ground- and space-based air quality observation networks, and to conduct short-term field studies relating to air quality. The data collected by these activities have been indispensable to the effective development and implementation of policies to protect public health and the environment, and will be even more so as the Nation addresses the emerging impacts of climate change. This report catalogs the wide range of U.S. air quality measurement modalities and programs, including routine regulatory and deposition networks, intensive field studies, satellites, and fixed-site special-purpose networks operated or overseen by Federal departments and agencies - including the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Department of Energy (DOE), Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and Department of the Interior (DOI) - and by various state, local and tribal partners. It also highlights some leading observational needs and opportunities, and identifies some of the barriers to fulfilling those needs and leveraging those opportunities. Specific programs and the pollutants they measure are documented in detail in the appendices.
