Geographical distribution and temporal variation of rain acidity over China
- Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing (China)
- Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences, Beijing (China); and others
In recent decade, large areas of acid rain have appeared in China. With the increasing emission of SO{sub 2} and NO{sub x} year by year, the acidity of precipitation has increased, and the acid rain area is expanding. Presently, the acid rain in China has become the third largest area of acid rain in the world, next to Europe and North America. The Chinese government took action against acid rain and planned a five-year National Acid Deposition Research Project. The space-time distribution and variation of rain acidity described in this paper is a part of this project. China is a large country. The area is almost equal to that of Europe. Its climate varies greatly and spans the tropics, subtropics, temperate and frigid zone. There is a varied topography including mountain, hilly country, desert and plain, on the other hand the distribution of anthropogenic sources are not even. All of the human and natural factors caused different chemical composition in different parts of China, the acidity of precipitation varies also. The acidity of the precipitation is the most important parameter in the acid rain research. In order to obtain the regional representative distribution of rain acidity, National Acidic Deposition Research Monitoring Network with 261 monitoring sites was established in 1992. This paper summarizes the rain acidity of 21355 precipitation samples, and gave the annual, seasonal, and the monthly pH contours. Results show that the acid rain area has expanded from the south during winter. Regional differences of monthly acid precipitation exists, generally, the rain acidity level is higher during summer and fall and lower during winter and spring in the northern provinces. The 9 opposite is the case in the southern provinces. The central areas are in a transitional situation. The geographical distribution and temporal variation of rain acidity are quite different from North America and Europe.
- OSTI ID:
- 466127
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9606185-; TRN: 96:005931-0076
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 5. international conference on atmospheric sciences and applications to air quality, Seattle, WA (United States), 18-20 Jun 1996; Other Information: PBD: 1996; Related Information: Is Part Of The 5th international atmospheric sciences and applications to air quality conference; PB: 322 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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