Participation of the Pennsylvania State University in the MAP3S precipitation chemistry network

The Meteorology Department of the Pennsylvania State University collected precipitation in central Pennsylvania for more than 14 years on behalf of the Multistate Atmospheric Power Production Pollution Study (MAP3S). The MAP3S protocol, based on the sampling of precipitation from individual meteorological events over a long period of time, has allowed both for the development of a chemical climatology of precipitation in the eastern region of the United States and for a vastly improved understanding of the atmospheric processes responsible for wet acidic deposition. The precipitation chemistry data from the Penn State MAP3S site provide evidence of links to the anthropogenic emissions of sulfur dioxide and oxidant precursors. There is now little doubt that the free acidity in the precipitation of the region is due to the presence of unneutralized sulfate in the aqueous phase. In the absence of significant sources of this sulfur species and in view of supplemental enrichment studies, it is concluded that the sulfate enters cloud and rain water primarily through the aqueous-phase oxidation of sulfur dioxide emitted into the air within the geographical region of deposition. Within the source region the local abundances of sulfur dioxide often exceed those of the oxidants, so the depositions of sulfate and free acidity tend to be modulated by the availability of the strong oxidants. As a consequence, the deposition of sulfate exhibits a very strong seasonal dependence and little response to changes in the emissions of sulfur dioxide