Chemical composition of the inorganic fraction of cloud-water at a high altitude station in West India

Data from a ground-based cloud-water collection system intercepting water from clouds at a mountain field station, Sinhagad near Pune in India are presented. This study was part of an Indo-Swedish Collaboration Project on Atmospheric Brown Cloud-Asia (ABC-A). Cloud-water and rainwater (wet-only) samples were collected during June 2007-Dec. 2010. Concentrations of major anions and cations were determined. Ion concentrations were generally higher (NO3-, about 8 times; SO42- and K+, 5 times; NH4+ times and Cl-, Na+, Ca2+, Mg2+ 3 times) in cloud-water samples than in rainwater samples collected during the same days. The average pH of cloud-water samples was 6.0 with about 20% of the values below 5.6 and only 4% less than 5.0. Despite high concentrations of SO42- and NO3- the cloud water samples were on average not more acidic than rainwater samples. This is different from most of the other studies of cloud-water composition which have noted a substantially higher acidity (i.e. lower pH) in cloud-water than in rainwater. The slightly alkaline (pH > 5.6) nature of the cloud-water samples is mainly due to the presence of soil derived calcium carbonate in quantities more than enough to neutralize the acids or their precursors. A separation of the cloud-water data into trajectory groups showed that samples in air-masses having spent the last few days over the Indian sub-continent were in general more acidic (due to anthropogenic emissions) than those collected during days with air-masses of marine origin. A high correlation mutually between Ca2+, Na+, NO3- and SO42- makes it difficult to estimate the contribution to SO42- from different sources. Anthropogenic SO2- emissions and soil dust may both give important contributions. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.