Wet deposition in the northeastern United States

Technical Report · Mon Dec 01 04:00:00 EST 1980

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/6693363· OSTI ID:6693363

Wilson, J; Mohnen, V; Kadlecek, J

Attempts are made to examine concentration and wet deposition of pollutant material at selected stations within the northeastern United States and to characterize as many events as possible with respect to air mass origin. Further attempts are made to develop a regional pattern for the deposition of dominant ion species. MAP3S (US Multistate Atmospheric Power Production Pollution Study) data for 1977 to 1979 are used to determine concentration and deposition on an event basis from which monthly, seasonal, annual, and cumulative averages are developed. The ARL-ATAD trajectory model is used to characterize individual events as to air mass origin. Case studies are examined to illustrate variability in the chemical composition of precipitation originating from distinctly different air mass trajectories. A difference in concentration of pollution-related ions in precipitation is noted between Midwest/Ohio Valley and Great Lakes/Canadian air mass origins for carefully selected cases. Total deposition of the major ions is examined in an effort to develop a regional pattern for deposition over a period of at least one year. For that purpose, total deposition is normalized to remove the variability in precipitation amounts for inter-station comparison. No marked gradient is noted in the normalized deposition totals within the northeast of the United States. The Adirondack region exhibited the lowest normalized ion deposition value, while the Illinois station showed the highest of the MAP3S network. The data analysis suggest that the acid rain phenomena covers the entire northeast. The concept of large scale mixing emerges to account for the lack of a significant gradient in the normalized deposition.

• Research Organization: State Univ. of New York, Albany (USA). Atmospheric Sciences Research Center
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AS02-76EV02986
• OSTI ID: 6693363
• Report Number(s): DOE/EV/02986-1
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

500200* -- Environment
Atmospheric-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (-1989)
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
ACID RAIN
ALKALI METAL COMPOUNDS
AMMONIUM COMPOUNDS
ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY
ATMOSPHERIC PRECIPITATIONS
CHALCOGENIDES
CHARGED PARTICLES
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION
CHEMISTRY
CHLORIDES
CHLORINE COMPOUNDS
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
DATA
DATA COMPILATION
DISPERSIONS
HALIDES
HALOGEN COMPOUNDS
HYDROGEN IONS
INFORMATION
IONS
MAPS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MATHEMATICS
MIXTURES
MONITORING
NITRATES
NITROGEN COMPOUNDS
NORTH AMERICA
NUMERICAL DATA
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
RAIN
REGIONAL ANALYSIS
REGRESSION ANALYSIS
SNOW
SODIUM COMPOUNDS
STATISTICS
SULFATES
SULFUR COMPOUNDS
SULFUR DIOXIDE
SULFUR OXIDES
USA