Studies of dry acid deposition in the South Coast Air Basin: intermethod comparison of procedures for nitric acid and ammonia. Final report, 29 July 1985-28 July 1986

Technical Report · Sat Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1986

OSTI ID:6991509

Appel, B R; Tokiwa, Y; Kothny, E L; Wu, R; Povard, V

A field study was performed at Claremont, CA to evaluate methods for the measurement of atmospheric nitric acid, fine particulate nitrate, and gaseous ammonia. The methods employed for nitric acid were the automated, semi-continuous tungstic acid technique (TAT) and the denuder difference method (DDM). Ammonia was measured with the TAT, a filterpack and a manual denuder tube collection method. Sampling was done in September 1985 in parallel with about 18 other research groups. Comparison of the present results to those from other groups is generally beyond the scope of the report. However, a comparison of HNO/sub 3/ values with those by a spectroscopic method employed is included herein. The DDM for nitric acid appears to be accurate within about 20%, while the TAT is subject to large variability. Daytime results at Claremont generally show agreement between the TAT and DDM but TAT results are much higher at night. Similarly, TAT ammonia results are uncertain by about a factor of 2.

• Research Organization: California Dept. of Health Services, Berkeley (USA). Air and Industrial Hygiene Lab.
• OSTI ID: 6991509
• Report Number(s): PB-86-236809/XAB
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

500200* -- Environment
Atmospheric-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (-1989)
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
ACID RAIN
AIR POLLUTION
AMMONIA
ATMOSPHERIC PRECIPITATIONS
CALIFORNIA
FEDERAL REGION IX
HYDRIDES
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
INORGANIC ACIDS
NITRIC ACID
NITROGEN COMPOUNDS
NITROGEN HYDRIDES
NORTH AMERICA
POLLUTION
RAIN
USA