Abstract
The study of fog water chemical composition and the contribution of fog droplets to total chemical deposition has become a relevant environmental subject over the past few years. This paper describes a fog water collector suitable for deposition network operation, due to its complete automation and to the facility of remote acquisition of sampling information. Sampling of fog droplets on teflon strings is activated by an optical fog detector according to a particular protocol operated by a microprocessor controller. Multiple sample collection, also microprocessor controlled, is possible with this instrument. The problem of fog droplet sampling in sub-freezing conditions is overcome using a sampling schedule implemented by the microprocessor controller which alternates between sampling periods and stand-by periods during which melting of the rime collected on the strings is allowed. Field tests on the reliability and reproducibility of the sampling operations are presented in the paper. Side by side operation of the fog collector with a PVM-100 fog liquid water content meter shows that the amount of water per unit volume of air collected by the sampling instrument is proportional to the fog liquid water content averaged over the period of an entire fog event.
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Fuzzi, S., Orsi, G., Bonforte, G. et al. An automated fog water collector suitable for deposition networks: Design, operation and field tests. Water Air Soil Pollut 93, 383–394 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02404768
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02404768