Acid precipitation at a rural central Pennsylvania site

Book · Tue Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1980

OSTI ID:5750437

Bowersox, V C

As part of the Multistate Atmospheric Power Production Pollution Study, precipitation chemistry data was obtained for the period January 1977 through December 1978 at a rural central Pennsylvania site operated by the Department of Meteorology of the Pennsylvania State University. The precipitation was collected and chemically analyzed on a storm-by-storm basis according to a rigorous protocol requiring the areal representativeness and chemical integrity of the samples recovered. These data were studied in an effort to identify and describe the behavior of the major soluble ions contributing to the precipitation chemistry observed. Four inorganic ions were found to dominate the chemistry of the rains and snows of central Pennsylvania. These were hydronium ion, sulfate ion, nitrate ion, and ammonium ion. Consequently, the simple stoichiometry relating these four summarizes the chemistry observed: (H/sub 3/O/sup +/) = 2(SO/sub 4//sup 2 -/) + 1(NO/sub 3/-) -1(NH/sub 4//sup +/). Hydronium ion, measured as pH, was the most abundant ion in precipitation, with the observed pH ranging from 3.5 to 4.8. All of these ions exhibited a large variability from storm to storm. Nitrate ion, in the mean, was a more constant component of precipitation. Thus, rains were essentially a dilute solution of sulfuric acid, while the acidity of snows was more affected by nitrate than by sulfate. Though generally lower in concentration than the other three ions, the presence of ammonium in precipitation was explained by assuming an equilibrium between cold water and the gaseous ammonia in the air. Grouping the precipitation chemistry data by the direction from which the cold air came revealed that air from the west related to higher mean sulfate, mean nitrate, and mean ammonium, compared to air from other directions. Finally, both the sulfate and nitrate concentrations demonstrated dependence on the amount of precipitation.

• OSTI ID: 5750437
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

500200* -- Environment
Atmospheric-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (-1989)
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
ACID RAIN
AMMONIA
ATMOSPHERIC PRECIPITATIONS
CHARGED PARTICLES
FEDERAL REGION III
HYDRIDES
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
IONS
MOLECULAR IONS
NITRATES
NITROGEN COMPOUNDS
NITROGEN HYDRIDES
NORTH AMERICA
OXONIUM IONS
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PENNSYLVANIA
PH VALUE
RAIN
SNOW
SULFATES
SULFUR COMPOUNDS
USA