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Technology & Development Center

Real-Time Smoke
Particulate Sampling
Fire Storm 2000

Methods and Test Descriptions

The instruments operated by MTDC and the MT DEQ were located in Missoula and Hamilton (table 3). The center’s fabrication shop is in Missoula at 1800 Strand Avenue near the center of town. The MT DEQ has a Rupprecht & Patashnick TEOM instrument operating at Missoula’s Boyd Park at the corner of Russell and Ernest Streets in Missoula. MTDC located a set of real-time instruments and an FRM sampler at the Bitterroot National Forest supervisor’s office in Hamilton, MT.

Table 3—Dates and locations where each instrument was deployed during the August 2001 wildfires.

All the MTDC real-time instruments were deployed at the center’s fabrication shop on August 10, 2000. On August 14, one set of instruments including a Met One GT-640, MIE DataRam, Optec NGN-3 nephelometer, Radiance Research nephelometer, and an FRM sampler were taken to Hamilton (figure 16). The Optec NGN-3 was brought back to Missoula on August 23. All the instruments operated until early September 2000. Table 3 shows the date and location where each instrument was deployed.

Figure 16—Instrument layout at the Bitterroot
National Forest supervisor’s office in Hamilton, MT.

A total of 32 FRM filter samples were collected at the MTDC fabrication shop area from August 10 through September 1, 2000. The average FRM sampling period was 10.9 h with the shortest sampling period being 1.5 h and the longest being 24 h. We collected 29 FRM filter samples in Hamilton from August 14 through September 1, 2000. The average FRM sampling period in Hamilton was 10.4 h, with the shortest period being 3 h and the longest period being 24 h. The MIE DataRam, Radiance Research nephelometer, and Met One GT-640 instruments ran almost continuously, taking 5-min averages. The Optec NGN-3 and Andersen aethalometer were taking 2-min and 1-min averages, respectively. Power was lost to the instruments in Hamilton on several occasions. Data were lost during those periods. Data from the real-time instruments were downloaded to a laptop computer at both sites.

The real-time instruments were equipped with PM2.5 inlets except for the Radiance Research nephelometer, which estimated total suspended particulate (TSP) concentrations. The instruments were also operated with their respective inlet heaters.

The TEOM instrument ran continuously, providing running 1-, 8-, and 24-h averages.

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