E-BAM Portable Particulate Monitor Met One Instruments' Portable Beta Gauges In the Field Looking like an army of robots, 20 mobile air monitors are gathered at an air quality monitoring site off Highway 1 near Nipomo in preparation for being deployed throughout the Nipomo Mesa for the next three months. Starting March 1, the air monitors will be set out in a grid pattern across the Mesa. They will continuously sample the air for dust particles during the windiest time of year — March, April and May. In the meantime, the monitors are being repaired and calibrated and their readings compared to a federally licensed air quality station at the permanent monitoring site, said Jaime Contreras, air quality monitoring specialist with the San Luis Obispo County Air Pollution Control District. “We want to make sure they are working properly and any problems are fixed before we deploy them,” he said. “They are all looking good.” The information the monitors gather will be use