AAAR 32nd Annual Conference
September 30 - October 4, 2013
Oregon Convention Center
Portland, Oregon, USA
Abstract View
Chemical Composition of Rain Water Collected from 2009 to 2010 at Queretaro City and a Rural Mining Site of San Joaquín, Querétaro, México
ROCIO GARCIA, Sara Solís, Carolina Muñoz, Gilberto Hernández, Ma. Elena Calderón, Armando Báez, Centro de Ciencias de la Atmósfera, UNAM
Abstract Number: 19 Working Group: Aerosols, Clouds, and Climate
Abstract Our study aims to understand the chemical composition of rainwater although all ions were analyzed SO$_4$^(-2), NO$_3$^-, Cl$^-, HCO$_3$^-, Ca$^(2+), Mg$^(2+), Na$^+, K$^+, NH$_4$^+ and H$^+ were performed in rainwater samples collected in Queretaro City and San Joaquin, a suburban area nearby the city. At a north site of Queretaro City during the rainy seasons of 2009 and 2010. The correlation analysis shows a positive and high correlation among them, indicating that the most important source was anthropogenic. Ammonium presented the higher volume weighted mean concentrations (VWMC), followed by SO$_4$^(-2), NO$_3$^-, HCO$_3$^-, Ca$^(2+), Cl$^-, H$^+, Na$^+, K$^+ and Mg$^(2+). Air mass back trajectories were associated to the concentrations of trace metals and of SO$_4$^(-2), Ca$^(2+), Mg$^(2+), NH$_4$^+ and H$^+ observed during each rainy day. Three factors have been used in this analysis, giving each variable a loading within each factor. Loadings greater than 0.5 are considered to be significant components of the factor. The four factors explain 67.19% of the total variance of all the data for San Joaquin. The third factor associates NH$_4$^+, NO$_3$^-, SO$_4$^(-2), Ca$^(2+) and K$^+ (10.4% of the total variance). This factor 3 expresses the control of the terrestrial source that could influence the alkalinity of the atmospheric water due to carbonate dissolution. Many studies pointed out the role of meteorological factors in determining the chemical features of precipitations.