The Department of Industry, Planning and Environment is accredited by the National Association of Testing Authorities for the operation and maintenance of various air quality instrumentation (accreditation number 14209). Where applicable, Standards Australia methods for ambient air monitoring are used. Technical information about the sampling methods and the analytical techniques used in air monitoring programs is outlined below for the major polllutants we measure.
Except for the rural NSW network stations, which use low cost indicative monitors, Australian Standard methods listed below are used within the NSW DPIE network.
Measurement techniques
Air pollutants are measured by a variety of techniques, most involving drawing sample air into the analyser and determining the concentration of the pollutant in the air.