Unified Wet Deposition Data Summaries for North America: Data Summary Procedures and Results for 1980-1986

摘要

The paper presents a general framework for data quality assessment of annual and seasonal wet deposition data summaries. Primary consideration has been given to (1) using data from regional or national networks with established quality assurance programs and documented network operation protocols, (2) assessing regional representativeness of each site, (3) determining quantitative data completeness measures used to define data completeness levels, and (4) explicitly stating the calculation procedures used to compute precipitation-weighted average concentrations and total deposition. The procedures described are applied to data collected in 1984 by the CAPMoN, APIOS, MAP3S, NADP/NTN, and UAPSP monitoring networks in North America and annual sulfate summaries are reported. It is recommended that the concepts of site representativeness levels, data completeness levels, and overall data quality levels be adopted by others and routinely be reported along with a data summary. Further work on assessing accuracy and precision to accompany the data quality levels is required.