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Published 2000 | public
Journal Article

Control of solute concentrations in cloud and fog water by liquid water content

Abstract

We measured the concentrations of Cl^−, NO_3^−, and SO_4^(2−) in atmospheric cloudwater collected with a passive collector from a remote marine site and the concentrations of Cl^−, NO_3^−, SO_4^(2−), Na^+ and NH_4^+ in cloudwater from a continental site. At the continental site, an active rotating arm collector was employed for cloudwater collection. At both locations, we observed an inverse relationship between the measured ion concentrations and the liquid water content of the clouds. The product of the observed concentrations and the liquid water content, the cloudwater loading, was found to be nearly constant. A study of published cloudwater data showed that at the majority of the examined locations this product varied little at any given site, whereas large differences exist between sites. The finding of the small variation in cloudwater loadings could be explained by the hypothesis that nucleation scavenging is the dominant process in the acquisition of solutes into hydro-meteors during fog and cloud formation.

Additional Information

© 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. Received 12 May 1999; received in revised form 5 July 1999; accepted 16 July 1999. Available online 14 February 2000. We are grateful to the personnel of the University of the Azores and of the Feldberg Observatory (University of Frankfurt) for their generous support. Special thanks are due to A.J. Kettle for useful discussions and to T.W. Andreae and C. Strametz for help with the preparation of the manuscript. We gratefully acknowledge the suggestions of an unknown referee. Support for MRH was provided by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. This work was funded by the Max Planck Society.

Additional details

Created:
August 21, 2023
Modified:
October 23, 2023