Acid rain has become one of the major environmental problems facing industrialized countries. Much has been written on the subject, often with political rhetoric and emotional speculation providing the theme. Despite this, evidence points to the existence of a problem that will be of increasing concern in the last decades of the twentieth century.
Assessing the nature of acid rain and its potential impact requires background information concerning the concept of acidity and ways in which atmospheric processes influence the potential for the deposition of an acid by precipitation processes.
Acidity
Acidity of a substance is associated with the relative abundance of free hydrogen ions (H+) when that substance is in a water solution. Acidity is measured on a logarithmic pH scale where a value of 7 indicates neutrality; decreasing values on the scale indicate increasing acidity and increasing values represent alkalinity. The pH scale with representative examples is shown in Fig. 1.
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References
Miller, J. M., 1984. Acid rain, Weatherwise 37, 232–239.
National Academy of Sciences, 1983. Acid Deposition: Atmospheric Processes in Eastern North America. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.
Peters, N. E., R. A. Schroeder, and D. E. Troutman, 1982. Temporal Trends in the Acidity of Precipitation and Surface Waters of New York, U.S. Geol. Survey Water-Supply Paper 2188. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office.
Wisniewski, J., and Kinsman J. D., 1982. An overview of acid rain monitoring activities in North America, Am. Meteorol. Soc. Bull. 63, 598–618.
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© 1987 Van Nostrand Reinhold
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Oliver, J.E. (1987). Acid rain . In: Climatology. Encyclopedia of Earth Science. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-30749-4_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-30749-4_1
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