A new all season passive sampling system for monitoring ozone in air

A new all season passive sampling system for monitoring O-3 in the atmosphe re has been developed in the laboratory and validated in the field. The uni que features for this system include a newly designed passive sampler and a rain shelter, which allow the passive sampler to be installed in the field facing downwards. An equation associated with meteorological parameters is used to calculate the passive sampling rates. This system has been extensi vely tested in the lab (temperature from -18 to 20 degreesC, relative humid ity from 13 to 81%, and wind speed from 0.5 to 150 cm/s) and validated in t he field in climates of all seasons. The accuracy of the ozone concentratio ns in the atmosphere obtained with the use of the new passive sampling syst em was higher than 85% compared to those obtained with continuous ozone ana lyzers. The new ozone passive sampling system can be used to measure ambien t O-3 concentrations ranging from 3 ppb to 1000 ppb based on one-day exposu re and 0.1 ppb to 140 ppb for a monthly exposure period. It is also reasona ble to conclude that the new passive sampling system can be used for eight- hour exposure study because of the low field blanks and high sampling rates .