Evaluation of small form factor, filter-based PM(2.5) samplers for temporary non-regulatory monitoring during wildland fire smoke events

Wildland fire activity and associated emission of particulate matter air pollution is increasing in the United States over the last two decades due primarily to a combination of increased temperature, drought, and historically high forest fuel loading. The regulatory monitoring networks in the Unites States are mostly concentrated in larger population centers where anthropogenic air pollution sources are concentrated. Smaller population centers in areas more likely to be impacted by wildland fire smoke in many instances lack adequate observational air quality data. Several commercially available small form factor filter-based PM(2.5) samplers (SFFFS) were evaluated under typical ambient and simulated near-to mid-field wildland fire smoke conditions to evaluate their accuracy for use in temporary deployments during prescribed and wildfire events. The performance of all the SFFFS tested versus the designated federal reference methods (FRM) was acceptable in determining PM(2.5) concentration in both ambient (2.7–14.0 μg m(−3)) and chamber smoke environments (24.6–3044.6 μg m(−3)) with accuracies ranging from ~92 to 98%. However, only the ARA Instruments model N-FRM Sampler was found to provide PM(2.5) mass measurement accuracies that meet FRM guideline performance specifications under both typical ambient (97.3 ± 1.9%) and simulated wildland fire conditions (98.2 ± 1.4%).