NARSTO Campaign Document Name

NARSTO is a public/private partnership, whose membership spans government, the utilities, industry, and academe throughout Mexico, the United States, and Canada. Its primary mission is to coordinate and enhance policy-relevant scientific research and assessment of tropospheric pollution behavior; its activities provide input for science-based decision-making and determination of workable, efficient, and effective strategies for local and regional air-pollution management. In accomplishing this mission, NARSTO is charged with establishing and maintaining effective communication channels between its scientific effort and its client community of planners, decision-makers, stakeholders, and strategic analysts. It is also charged with providing a cross-organization planning process, which determines the most effective strategies for scientific investigation. Data products from several local, regional, and international monitoring and research programs are archived and documented under this umbrella organization.

Table of Contents:

1. Project/Campaign Overview:

Name of Project/Campaign:

Project/Campaign Introduction:

NARSTO is a public/private partnership, whose membership spans government, the utilities, industry, and academe throughout Mexico, the United States, and Canada. Its primary mission is to coordinate and enhance policy-relevant scientific research and assessment of tropospheric pollution behavior; its activities provide input for science-based decision-making and determination of workable, efficient, and effective strategies for local and regional air-pollution management. In accomplishing this mission, NARSTO is charged with establishing and maintaining effective communication channels between its scientific effort and its client community of planners, decision-makers, stakeholders, and strategic analysts. It is also charged with providing a cross-organization planning process, which determines the most effective strategies for scientific investigation. NARSTO coordinates the allocation of financial resources to implement these strategies and monitors progress of its effort toward fulfillment of its programmatic goal.

Project/Campaign Mission Objectives:

A North American consortium for atmospheric research in support of air-quality management.

Discipline(s):

The NARSTO research focus is in four broad technical program areas: (1) Atmospheric Chemistry and Modeling Research, (2) Emissions Research, (3) Observations Research, and (4) Integrated Analysis and Assessment. NARSTO limits its research activities to the measurement and analysis of atmospheric processes that occur between the source and the receptor. NARSTO coordinates information exchange and collaboration with other scientists and policy-makers (both national and international) through liaison arrangements.

Geographic Region(s):

Research and monitoring activities are taking place in Canada, Mexico and the United States. Detailed geographic information is provided in the data set documents for each study.

Detailed Project/Campaign Description:

The NARSTO mission is to plan, coordinate, and facilitate comprehensive, long-term, policyrelevant scientific research and assessment of primary and secondary pollutant species emitted, formed, transformed, and transported in the troposphere over the North American continent. The current emphasis is directed toward the study of ozone, particulate matter, and their precursors. To accomplish this mission, NARSTO provides a cross-organization planning process that determines the most effective strategies for scientific investigation, and establishes and maintains effective communication channels with the policy, control technology, and health and ecological effects communities.

The central programmatic goal of NARSTO is to provide data and information for use in the determination of workable, efficient, and effective strategies for local and regional ozone and fine particle management. NARSTO is guided by the long-term (10-Year), science-focused, policy-relevant research plan described in the document entitled, NARSTO Research Strategy and Charter (November 1994), and the Strategic Execution Plan that establishes the near-term research agenda. These documents can be downloaded from the NARSTO website.

2. Data Availability:

Data are available from the NASA Langley Atmospheric Science Data Center as ASCII data files in the NARSTO Data Exchange Standard (DES) format. This format is described on the NARSTO Quality Systems Science Center website [ http://cdiac.ornl.gov/programs/NARSTO/ ].

Data Type(s):

Atmospheric chemistry, model outputs, emissions estimates, particulate matter, and meteorology.

Input/Output Media:

Proprietary Status:

3. Data Access:

Data Center Location:

Langley Amospheric Science Data Center
NASA Langley Research Center
Hampton, Virginia USA

On-line data search and ordering available at http://eosweb.larc.nasa.gov/PRODOCS/narsto/table_narsto.html.

Contact Information:

Langley Atmospheric Science Data Center
Science, User and Data Services Office
NASA Langley Research Center
Hampton, Virginia USA
Telephone: (757) 864-8656
FAX: (757) 864-8807
E-mail: larc@eos.nasa.gov

Associated Costs:

4. Principal Investigator Information:

Program/project Managers and Principal Investigators are responsible for all aspects of NARSTO activities and are the scientists most knowledgeable about the collecting, processing, analyses, and reporting of their respective data sets and are identified in the respective data set documentation.

5. Submitting Investigator Information:

Individual Program/Project Data Managers assemble their data products and provide them for archive to the NARSTO Quality Systems Science Center (QSSC). Project data management contacts are identified in the respective data set documentation. The QSSC performs documentation, data file format, and quality assurance checks and forwards the data products to the Langley Data Center for archive. Questions about data access, formats, available software and analysis tools may be addressed to the QSSC.

NARSTO Qualty Systems Science Center
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
P.O. Box 2008
Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6335 USA
Telephone: (865) 241-4846
FAX: (865) 574-2232
E-mail: hookla@ornl.gov

6. References:

NARSTO Quality Systems Management Plan (ORNL/CDIAC-110), 1999, R.K. Patterson, G.F. Momberger, L.A. Hook, M.-D. Cheng, and T.A. Boden. (preparation and electronic publishing by NARSTO Quality Systems Science Center) (http://cdiac.ornl.gov/programs/NARSTO/). Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA.

NARSTO Quality Planning Handbook (ORNL/CDIAC-111), 1998, L.A. Hook, M.-D. Cheng, and T.A. Boden. (preparation and electronic publishing by NARSTO Quality Systems Science Center) (http://cdiac.ornl.gov/programs/NARSTO/). Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA.

NARSTO Data Management Handbook (ORNL/CDIAC-112/R2), 1999, S.W. Christensen, T.A. Boden, L.A. Hook, and M.-D. Cheng. (preparation and electronic publishing by NARSTO Quality Systems Science Center) (http://cdiac.ornl.gov/programs/NARSTO/). Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA.

7. Glossary of Terms:

8. List of Acronyms:

9. Document Information:

Document Creation Date: March 19, 2002
Document Review Date: Mar 19, 2002; Aug 2002
Last Date Modified: Mar 19, 2002 (non-science related update); Aug 2002

Document Curator:

NARSTO* Project/Campaign Document

Summary: