Abstract
Ion concentrations in relatively low-intensity precipitation were measured in southern Indiana, USA and are presented as a function of their temporal evolution during individual precipitation events with a specific focus on the first 30 min of those events. These data indicate that during individual rain events potassium concentrations in precipitation may decline by up to 70%–80% in the first 30 min of the event. The other ions exhibited less rapid concentration declines during this event which are in rank order (highest to lowest); sodium, chloride, magnesium, nitrate, calcium, sulfate and ammonium. There is some evidence that the initial declines for precipitation accumulations up to 2 mm in the concentrationof chloride, calcium and sulfate in precipitation more closely approximate a power-law dependency on precipitation depth than the commonly applied exponential form which, if confirmed, may have implications for efforts to correct flux networks for under-sampling due to delay in sample collection. Scavenging coefficients (b) derived using an exponential relationship over entire events for sodium, chloride, nitrate, calcium, sulfate and ammonium indicate highest values for sodium and lowest for ammonium, but the uncertainty bounds on ion-specific values of b are sufficiently large that they are statistically indistinguishable.
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Acknowledgments
This research was funded by a grant from NSF (ATM 0334321) and a fellowship to SP from the Nordic Centre of Excellence on Biosphere–Aerosol–Cloud–Climate Interactions (BACCI). Jeff Schauss assisted with sample collection. Comments of two reviewers are gratefully acknowledged.
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Pryor, S.C., Spaulding, A.M. & Rauwolf, H. Evolution of the Concentration of Inorganic Ions during the Initial Stages of Precipitation Events. Water Air Soil Pollut 180, 3–10 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-006-9245-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-006-9245-4