Monitoring Network and Data

Air Quality Monitoring Stations
Meteorological Towers
Cameras
Data

The Air Quality Monitoring Network operates to monitor and characterize windblown dust in the Imperial Valley. It was developed and is maintained by IID, in collaboration with the California Air Resources Board and the Environmental Protection Agency.

The network consists of Air Quality Monitoring Stations, Meteorological Towers, and Cameras.

Air Quality Monitoring Stations

Six permanent monitoring stations are located near existing communities, known emission sources, or sensitive receptor areas. These stations continuously monitor hourly average mass concentrations of particulate matter and associated meteorological parameters.

At each station, a TEOM instrument continuously measures particulate matter concentrations. At two of the stations, a Partisol instrument collects filter samples to provide elemental information on the chemical composition of the particles.

Meteorological Towers

Meteorological towers are installed near each permanent monitoring station. The meteorological towers at the permanent monitoring stations are about 30 feet tall and measure wind direction, wind speed, relative humidity, solar radiation, and temperature.

The portable and field scale pilot study meteorological towers are about 20 feet tall, consisting of stainless steel tripods with anchored guy wires. The portable monitoring stations monitor wind speed and direction at various locations and heights.

Cameras

Five Roundshot cameras provide a 360-degree panoramic image every 10 minutes during the daylight hours. The Roundshot cameras provide views of current conditions around the Salton Sea and near Anza-Borrego in the Ocotillo Wells State Vehicular Recreation Area. The images can be viewed in the DustCam Viewer.

Additional still-frame cameras are distributed around the Sea.

Data

Data from the Salton Sea Air Quality Monitoring Stations are available online. IID posts validated PM10 data on a quarterly basis. Data from 2022 to present are available here. Data since 2015 are available by request to airquality@iid.com. In addition, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) posts daily, pre-validated, hourly PM10 data, available here. The CARB data are periodically replaced with the validated data.