Principal component analysis approach to evaluate instrument performances in developing a cost-effective reliable instrument network for atmospheric measurements

Developing a reliable cost-effective instrument network for data measurement is a challenging task for agency decisionmakers. A simple way to fully characterize the performances of an instrument that also considers economical and operational factors—price, maintenance cost, lifetime, etc.—currently does not exist. Through principal component analysis, a method is developed to build a composite index that assigns a single score to each instrument, taking into account all the scientific, economic, and operational aspects. This index will then represent solid help in building and optimizing a cost-effective network, bridging the gap between two very different worlds: the scientific need for precision and economic constraints.