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National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) can be found at the EPA’s website. Over the past 50 years the standard annual mean for fine particulate matter PM2.5 has been significantly tightened, starting out at 75 µg/m³ of air in 1971 and now only 12 µg/m³ of air (as of 2012 standards).

Create a new tab/sheet in your worksheet and name it “Mod 9”. Copy the following three columns from your other tabs into this new worksheet, making sure to label these columns: Daily Mean PM2.5 Concentration 2018, Daily AQI Values 2003, and Daily AQI Values 2018. Note that the number of rows may differ between 2003 and 2018, but that is okay.

Use StatCrunch to find a 90% confidence interval for the column Daily Mean PM2.5 Concentration from your 2018 data. Note the two conditions for a valid confidence interval are met. Insert the StatCrunch results into your Mod 9 worksheet.

What is the confidence interval for your 2018 PM2.5 data? Is the 12 µg/m³ of air standard limit contained in your confidence interval? With standards getting stricter over time, it is possible that even if it the current standard is not contained in the confidence interval a future stricter standard might be. What concerns might you have if this were contained in your confidence interval? What can you interpret from this?

The textbook noted that confidence intervals may be reported in two different ways. Please give your results in both formats. Which format do you find to be more useful or clearer?

Now, utilize Excel’s COUNTIF function to find how many days in your data set had a Daily Mean PM2.5 Concentration over 12 µg/m³. Did your area have any days over the standard annual mean for fine particulate matter, and if so how many? Note that the 12 µg/m³ is an annual mean so that over the course of the year the AVERAGE for any given area should be under that value. As an average, one would expect some days to be higher and some days to be lower concentrations, but the overall average for the year should be below this value to meet the EPA’s standards.

Learn more about the Air Quality Index (AQI) which is calculated for four major air pollutants regulated by the Clean Air Act in the AQI Brochure. Page 3 of this brochure includes a table noting levels of health concerns for various air quality index values. In your Mod 9 worksheet, create a table containing a row for each range of AQI values (as found on page 3 of the brochure) and a column for each of the following: Levels of Health Concerns, # of days 2003, and # of days 2018. Utilize the COUNTIF function in Excel to find the number of days within each range of AQI values on the table, for each year of your data. For example, to find the number of days with AQI in the Moderate Level of Health Concern (AQI 51 to 100), use this command (adapt to reflect the appropriate cells in your data file): =COUNTIF(G2:G477,”<101″)-COUNTIF(G2:G477,”<51″).

Create a single post addressing all of the questions and topics above, making sure to report your results found (use complete and descriptive sentences). Attach your Excel data file (*.xls or *.xlsx) to your discussion post. The Excel file will include not only the data, but also the use of commands and clearly labeled results.

In addition to your main post, you are to respond to at least two other students’ main posts. Substantive responses to other students’ main posts might include the following: (1) a detailed comparison of your results to their results including proposing why the results might (or might not) differ between your two regions, or (2) detailed and polite recommendations for improvements should their work be incorrect or not fully meet the assignment’s requirements.

Grading for this assignment will be based on the Discussion Participation Rubric in the Course Information Tab.