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Acid Rain and Storm Progress
Name: Jessica I.
Status: student
Age: 16
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: 2000-2001
Question:
I did an experiment on Acid Rain wehre I collected rain
water from teh first five minutes of a strom..then from the middle to the
end of the storm.
I expected the acid content to be higher in the first 5 minutes, but after
7 tests I have PH readings which, on average go from:
Ph of 6.8/6.9 in the first five minutes
to
PH of 6.4/6.5 in the middle and end of the storm
Why is the acid hihger at the end of the storm? It's contrary to
everything I read.
Replies:
Jessica,
The acidity of rain is related to the concentration of air gases (for example:
sulfur and nitrogen oxides) that can react with rain (water) to form acids
detected by your pH test. As the storm progresses, the rain washes (dissolves)
the gases out of the air and thus lowers the concentration of acid in the
rain.
As the acid content goes down, the pH of the rain will rise slightly.
Regards,
ProfHoff
Jessica,
I am only making an educated guess, but I assume that
the storms that you are talking about are thunderstorms.
Even though where you live is not right on the coast,
it is possible that there was a substantial amount of
sea salt at the levels where the precipitation was forming,
especially as the storm pulled in air from areas outside
of where the storm began, as it grew. If so, some of the
condensation nuclei for the initial precipitation may
have been salt, which would result in higher pH of the
precipitation. If there were easterly winds during the
beginning of the storm, air with salt in it may have
existed below the level of precipitation formation; rain
falling though this area would have removed some of the
salt, thereby also increasing the pH.
David R. Cook
Atmospheric Research Section
Environmental Research Division
Argonne National Laboratory
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