A national critical loads framework for atmospheric deposition effects assessment: III. Deposition characterization

Journal Article · · Environmental Management; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02394677· OSTI ID:6924905

Hicks, B ^[1]; McMillen, R ^[2]; Turner, R S ^[3]; Holdren, Jr, G R; Strickland, T C ^[4]

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1. NOAA Air Resources Lab., Silver Spring, MD (United States)
2. NOAA/ARL Atmospheric Turbulence and Diffusion Division, Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
3. Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States)
4. ManTech Environmental Technology Inc., Corvallis, OR (United States)

Methods are discussed for describing patterns of current wet and dry deposition under various scenarios. It is proposed that total deposition data across an area of interest are the most relevant in the context of critical loads of acidic deposition, and that the total (i.e., wet plus dry) deposition will vary greatly with the location, the season, and the characteristics of individual subregions. Wet and dry deposition are proposed to differ in such fundamental ways that they must be considered separately. Both wet and dry deposition rates are controlled by the presence of the chemical species in question in the air (at altitudes of typically several kilometers in the case of wet deposition, and in air near the surface for dry). The great differences in the processes involved lead to the conclusion that it is better to measure wet and dry deposition separately and combine these quantifications to produce [open quotes]total deposition[close quotes] estimates than to attempt to derive total deposition directly. A number of options for making estimates of total deposition to be used in critical loads assessment scenarios are discussed for wet deposition (buckets and source receptor models) and for dry deposition (throughfall, micrometerology, surrogate surfaces and collection vessels, inference from concentrations, dry-wet ratios, and source-receptor models). 19 refs., 2 figs., 2 tabs.

• OSTI ID: 6924905
• Journal Information: Environmental Management; (United States), Vol. 17:3; ISSN 0364-152X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRON. POLLUTANT EFFECTS ON LIVING ORGS. AND BIOL. MAT.
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
29 ENERGY PLANNING
POLICY AND ECONOMY
AIR POLLUTION
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
ECOSYSTEMS
EVALUATION
ACID RAIN
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION
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MATHEMATICAL MODELS
SEASONAL VARIATIONS
SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION
ATMOSPHERIC PRECIPITATIONS
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