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A precipitation sampler intercomparison

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Abstract

A three month experimental study to evaluate the relative performance of three different designs of ‘event’ precipitation chemistry samplers was carried out at Woodbridge, Ontario beginning in August 1979. The samplers evaluated were an automatic Aerochem Metrics, ‘wet-only’ type (A), a funnel-and-bottle type (F), and a large-mouth plastic bucket with a specially-fabricated polyethylene bag insert (S). Each sampler was run in duplicate, with a sampling period of 24 hr.

The results show that at sites where dry deposition is important, bulk samplers (‘F’ and ‘S’ types) yield significantly different results from the wet-only collector including rainfall amount, H+ , SO4 , NO3 , Na+, K+, Ca++, and Mg++. However, the bulk samplers, especially the ‘S’ type, are found to be satisfactory under certain conditions. For conditions which correspond to daily rainfall less than 2.8 mm and windier and drier sampling, there is even evidence of dry contamination of the wet-only type sampler.

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Chan, W.H., Lusis, M.A., Stevens, R.D.S. et al. A precipitation sampler intercomparison. Water Air Soil Pollut 23, 1–13 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00185126

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00185126

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