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Air Quality Blog Smoke analysis for the southeastern U.S. on 4/20/23.

Smoke Drives April Air Quality Woes

 By Bradley McLamb We usually experience good air quality conditions throughout the spring in North Carolina, often due to those April showers that bring May flowers! However, it...
Air Quality Blog Ozone formation

Springing into the 2023 Ozone Season

 By Sara Kreuser and Bradley McLamb March heralds the start of not only meteorological spring – even if it may be colder than February was! –  but also the official start...
Air Quality Blog A screenshot of the Air Quality Portal dashboard containing air quality and weather forecasts

Air Quality Updates: What to Watch for in 2022

 By Bradley McLamb, Heather Wylie, Elliot Tardif and Corey Davis That feeling of spring in the air will soon be joined by powdery puffs of pollen, some sniffs of smoke, and potentially even occasional unhealthy...
Air Quality Blog This graphic depicts what a cross-section of a surface temperature inversion looks like. There is a sunshine in the sky, some little houses to indicate smoke from residential wood burning, and mountains to depict pollution being trapped in a valley thanks to the warm air aloft.

Winter Air Quality

 By Heather Wylie Have you noticed how fine particulate readings in the morning are often higher than the afternoon during the winter months? This is often due to...
Air Quality Blog Diagram of a BAM air quality monitor.

Air Quality Monitoring

 By Heather Wylie Earlier this month we discussed the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), but how do we measure air quality to ensure our air is within...
Air Quality Blog PM2.5 concentrations, winds, and NOAA OSPO’s smoke analysis at 3 pm on July 21, 2021.

AIR Tool Offers Air Quality and Weather Data, in Detail

 By Corey Davis and Bradley McLamb This post originally appeared on the State Climate Office’s Climate Blog in August 2021 coinciding with the public launch of the Ambient Information Reporter. The State Climate Office...
Air Quality Blog A satellite image of North Carolina is shown. There are pins on the map to show the locations of monitoring sites across the state.

Air Quality Monitoring

 By Heather Wylie A Statewide Effort Last month we discussed the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), but how do we measure air quality to ensure our air...
Air Quality Blog

National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS)

 By Heather Wylie In an earlier post, we discussed the Air Quality Index and how it measures the state of the air. We mentioned that the breakpoints for...
Air Quality Blog An image from a satelllie showing smoke transport from the September 2017 wildfires in the Pacific Northwest. Hazy brown smoke is being carried by the jet stream from coast to coast across the United States.Actively burning areas are outlined in red. NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response Team, GSFC

Atmospheric Dispersion and Pollution Transport

 By Heather Wylie In our forecast discussion, we will occasionally mention things like “limited dispersion” or “low mixing heights” – have you ever wondered what that means? It...
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