Data acquisition systems for ambient air monitoring applications

The problem posed by the huge bulk of ambient air monitoring data on the interpretation of data is considered, and a cost-effective approach to automatic data handling is presented. This approach is designed for use in situations for which real-time data acquisition is not justified. A block diagram of the equipment used for data logging at local sites is examined. The logger activates itself every four minutes and records the output of up to 15 analog instruments and the time of day onto a low-cost cassette magnetic tape. Incoming data, after validation, is accumulated until the end of the current half-hour when an arithmetic mean is calculated for each parameter. Operation of and data acquisition at remote stations is discussed.