Ambient Air Monitoring Stations

Project Updates

Updated: March 2026

• Major Findings: 
  
  • No elevated ozone this winter.
    
    
• Current and upcoming work:
  • All sites have been operational since December 1st. Real time data at https://basinwx.com (or our old website, http://ubair.usu.edu/index.html) 
  • Final data will be available this summer. 
    
    
• Problems:
  • New instruments used to measure nitrogen oxides (NOx) at the Roosevelt and Castle Peak monitoring sites have been challenging to calibrate. Our team is developing improved methods to ensure these instruments provide accurate and reliable air quality data.
    
    
  • A new instrument for measuring formaldehyde at the Horsepool monitoring site is showing strong potential. We are still refining the best methods to ensure accurate baseline measurements, but initial calibrations look very promising. Results from this instrument also compare well with the established DNPH cartridge method used to measure formaldehyde. 
    
    
  • The new methane/total non-methane instrument at Horsepool is working great. 

Operating Stations

We will operate meteorology and air quality monitoring equipment at the following stations during the coming winter from December 1st through March 31st

• Horsepool
• Roosevelt
• Castle Peak
• Seven Sisters

These stations are not official regulatory monitors but are instead operated to:

1. Measure chemical conditions around the Uinta Basin that are not captured at regulatory stations. Most regulatory NO_X instruments suffer from a high bias during winter inversion episodes and thus do not provide accurate NO_X measurements during these periods; whereas, we measure NO_X via an unbiased technique at Horsepool, Roosevelt, and Castle Peak. Our measurements of speciated organic compounds at Horsepool and Roosevelt are the only long-term organics measurements in the Uinta Basin (hydrocarbons, alcohols, and carbonyls). We also measure NO_Y, CO, particulate matter smaller than 2.5 μm (PM₅), snow depth, solar radiation, and albedo at various wavelengths.

2. Provide information about the spatial distribution of ozone in the Uinta Basin region. Eight regulatory monitoring stations operate in the Uinta Basin, but they are not evenly distributed around the Basin. We operate ozone monitoring stations to provide a more spatially representative dataset to compare against results from our photochemical modeling work. Data from these stations can be downloaded from our website https://www.usu.edu/binghamresearch/data-access. 
   
   

   Most of our stations have been operating since 2010. The entire dataset, including data from regulatory stations and stations we operate, constitutes an essential long-term record of meteorology and air quality in the Uinta Basin.