NARSTO STIFS: Particulate Matter and VOC Measurements from Canada, 2001-2002

NARSTO STIFS data includes mass and water soluble organics and inorganics, speciated volatile organic carbon gas phase measurements, and PM2.5 mass concentrations. The dataset was collected during the Summer-Winter-Summer of 2001-2002 across regions from SW Ontario to SW Quebec and the Saturna/Vancouver area. It was produced by the NARSTO partnership, a public/private consortium spanning North America, and is archived by NASA.

Use Cases

• Improving estimates of local vs. long-range transport contributions to particulate matter based on high time-resolution composition data.
• Developing and validating regional air quality models (e.g., AURAMS, Models-3/CMAQ) using detailed ambient measurement data.
• Conducting process studies on particle formation and transformation using speciated organic and inorganic measurements.
• Informing air pollution management policy by analyzing the relative importance of U.S. versus Canadian particle sources.

Strengths

• High time-resolution measurements for organic carbon, black carbon, particle nitrate, and sulfate, providing detailed temporal patterns.
• Covers multiple pollutant types including PM mass, trace metals, inorganic ions, and speciated volatile organic compounds.
• Focuses on transboundary pollution in key Canadian regions (SW Ontario to SW Quebec, Saturna/Vancouver), relevant for regional studies.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale modeling.
• Data may reflect geographic and temporal bias inherent to the specific 2001-2002 study period and monitoring locations.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), archiving data from the NARSTO partnership.

Collection Method

Ambient measurements collected during the Supersite Transboundary Intensive Field Study (STIFS) monitoring campaign.

Time Range

Summer-Winter-Summer of 2001-2002.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-12 23:57:09.507119; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Regions from SW Ontario to SW Quebec, and the Saturna/Vancouver area in Canada.