Real-time measurement and interpretation of the conductivity and pH of precipitation samples

Beverland, Iain J.; Heal, Mathew R.; Crowther, John; Srinivas, M.

doi:10.1007/bf02047042

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…The conductivity of saturated HgCl2 in water (at 0.1% vol/vol) was 13.6 ± 0.4 uS/cm, which is also comparable to our field blanks and less than what was observed for our samples. Even with this background correction applied, the conductivity values presented here are expected to be similar to or higher than what would typically be found in rainwater (4 to 150 µS/cm; Beverland et al, 1997) as the rain sensor deliberately selects for precipitation containing ionic chemical components with conductivity greater than 1.0 uS/cm, while excluding pure water during atmospheric washout, which would dilute the dissolved solutes in the wet deposition sample and lower the resulting conductivity values. The overall comparability between our range and those previously reported, where the lower limit is slightly higher in our dataset, demonstrates that the principle of operation of our instrument is robust.…”

Section: Precipitation Conductivitymentioning

confidence: 77%

Cost Effective Off-Grid Automatic Precipitation Samplers for Pollutant and Biogeochemical Atmospheric Deposition

Colussi,

Persaud,

Lao

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Abstract. An important transport process for particles and gases from the atmosphere to aquatic and terrestrial environments is through dry and wet deposition. An open-source, modular, off-grid, and affordable instrument that can automatically collect wet deposition samples allows for more extensive deployment of deposition samplers in fieldwork and would enable more comprehensive monitoring of remote locations. Precipitation events selectively sampled using a conductivity sensor powered by a battery-based supply are central to off-grid capabilities. The prevalence of conductive precipitation, initially containing high solute levels and progressing through trace level concentrations to ultrapure water in full atmospheric washout, depends on the sampling location but is ubiquitous. This property is exploited here to trigger an electric motor via limit switches to open and close a lid resting over a funnel opening. The motors are operated via a custom-built and modular digital logic control board, which have low energy demands. All components, their design and rationale, and assembly are provided for community use. The modularity of the control board allows operation of up to six independent wet deposition units, such that replicate measurements (e.g., canopy throughfall) or different collection materials for various targeted pollutants can be implemented as necessary. We demonstrate that these platforms are capable of continuous operation off-grid for integrated monthly and bimonthly collections performed across the Newfoundland and Labrador Boreal Ecosystem Latitudinal Transect (47° to 53° N) during the growing seasons of 2015 and 2016. System performance was assessed through measured power consumption from 115 volts of alternating current (VAC; grid power) or 12 volts of direct current from battery supplies during operation under both standby (40 or 230 mA, respectively) and in-use (78 or 300 mA, respectively) conditions. In the field, one set of triplicate samplers was deployed in the open to collect incident precipitation (open fall) while another set was deployed under the experimental forest canopy (throughfall). The proof-of-concept systems were validated with basic measurements of rainwater chemistry including: i) pH ranging from 4.14 to 5.71 in incident open fall rainwater; ii) conductivity ranging from 21 to 166 uS/cm; and iii) dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations in open fall and canopy throughfall of 16 ± 10 mg/L and 22 ± 12 mg/L, respectively; with incident fluxes spanning 600 to 4200 mg C m-2 a-1 across the transect. Ultimately, this demonstrates that the customized precipitation sampling design of this new platform enables more universal accessibility of deposition samples to the atmospheric observation community – for example, those who have made community calls for targeting biogeochemical budgets and/or contaminants of emerging concern in sensitive and remote regions.

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Section: Precipitation Conductivitymentioning

confidence: 77%

Cost Effective Off-Grid Automatic Precipitation Samplers for Pollutant and Biogeochemical Atmospheric Deposition

Colussi,

Persaud,

Lao

et al. 2023

Preprint

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“…Acidic gases (NO x and SO x ) are emitted into the air by various sources. They combine with water in the air to form sulphurous and nitrous acids which then fall as rain to contaminate water in rivers and lakes by decreasing the pH [10,11]. The acidic water leaches metals out of the rocks and sediments as soluble ions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wireless sensor network‐based solution for environmental monitoring: water quality assessment case study

Postolache

Pereira

Girão

2014

IET Science, Measurement & Technology

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The challenges of climate change, population growth, demographic change, urbanization and resource depletion mean that the world's great cities need to adapt to survive and thrive over the coming decades. Slashing greenhouse gas emissions to prevent catastrophic climate change, while maintaining or increasing quality of life, can be a costly and difficult process. Two factors that directly affect the life quality in the XXI century cities are the water and air quality that can be monitored using the combination of low cost sensing modules, machine to machine (M2M) and internet of things (IoT) technologies. In this context, this study presents a wireless sensor network architecture that combines low cost sensing nodes and a low cost multiparameters sensing probe for reliable monitoring of water quality parameters of surface waters (lakes, estuaries and rivers) in urban areas. A particular attention is dedicated to the design of the conductivity, temperature and turbidity signal conditioning circuits, highlighting important issues related to linearisation, measuring dynamic range and low-cost implementation by using commercial off-the-shelf components and devices. Several issues related to the wireless sensor network implementation are included in this study, as well as several simulation and experimental results.

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“…The major soluble component of the atmosphere is CO 2 but this is only weakly ionized in solution and the carbonic acid (H 2 CO 3 ) generated defines a lower limit for background pH of 5.6 at 15 o C (Beverland et al, 1997 and references therein). As Beverland et al (1997) show, although a pH increase of 0.061, due to decreasing Henry's Law constant, can be expected between 5 and 25 o C for carbonic acid alone, changes of CO 2 equilibrium cannot be responsible for the observed discrepancies of rain samples collected within the pH range 3.9 to 4.9. The major species which contribute to an increased acidification of rainwater are SO 2 and sulphuric (H 2 SO 4 ), nitric (HNO 3 ) and hydrochloric (HCl) acids.…”

Section: Methods For Sampling Wet Depositionmentioning

confidence: 72%

Atmospheric Wet Deposition Monitoring in Iasi, Romania

Arsene

Mihalopoulos

Olariu

et al.

Nato Science Series: IV: Earth and Environmental Science

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Real-time measurement and interpretation of the conductivity and pH of precipitation samples

Cited by 5 publications

References 24 publications

Cost Effective Off-Grid Automatic Precipitation Samplers for Pollutant and Biogeochemical Atmospheric Deposition

Cost Effective Off-Grid Automatic Precipitation Samplers for Pollutant and Biogeochemical Atmospheric Deposition

Wireless sensor network‐based solution for environmental monitoring: water quality assessment case study

Atmospheric Wet Deposition Monitoring in Iasi, Romania

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