Overview: The NAtChem/Particulate Matter Database

Atmospheric particles are important because of their impact on human health, acid deposition, visibility, climate change and atmospheric chemistry. The NAtChem/PM Database merges PM data from various North American monitoring networks for use in atmospheric research.

The NAtChem/PM Database is used to investigate spatial and temporal trends of particulate matter and to carry out data analyses related to climate change, visibility, human health and acid deposition.

The Database currently contains data from 22 North American PM networks. The networks can be viewed under Networks. The current focus of the database is on chemical composition data. Eventually it will expand to include physical data such as number, size and optical properties. The current status can be viewed in the database status table.

Contributing Networks data are converted into a standard NAtChem/PM Database format. Key metadata is collected and evaluated to understand the networks' measurement methods and data. A summary can be found in the Networks Summary Table.