Analysis of precipitation chemistry at a central Pennsylvania site

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Abstract
As part of the multistate atmospheric power production pollution study precipitation chemistry network, precipitation has been sampled on a storm‐by‐storm basis at a rural central Pennsylvania site operated by Pennsylvania State University since October 1976. These precipitation data have been analyzed for sulfate, nitrate, ammonium, and hydronium ions for the years 1977 and 1978, and both years exhibit the same general behavior with respect to these chemical species: (1) sulfate concentration in precipitation varies with season, with high values in the summer and low values in the winter, (2) sulfate ion is the major determinant of precipitation acidity, though sulfate alone does not account for the total H3O+ concentration, (for snow and other frozen precipitation the relation between sulfate and H3O+ is less pronounced), (3) nitrate ion of concentrations similar to those of sulfate does not correlate well with hydronium ion in liquid precipitation but does correlate with H3O+ in snow and frozen precipitation, and (4) ammonium ion concentrations in precipitation can be explained by assuming an equilibrium state between the cloud water and gas phase ammonia.

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