1986 wet deposition temporal and spatial patterns in North America

Abstract

The focus of this report is on North American wet deposition temporal patterns from 1979 to 1986 and spatial patterns for 1986. The report provides statistical distribution summaries of annual precipitation-weighted average concentration and annual deposition for nine ion species: hydrogen, sulfate, nitrate, ammonium, calcium, chloride, sodium, potassium, and magnesium. The data in the report are from the Acid Depositing System (ADS) for the statistical reporting of North American deposition data. Isopleth maps, based on surface estimation using kriging, display concentration and deposition spatial patterns of pH, hydrogen, sulfate, nitrate, ammonium, and calcium ion species for 1986 annual, winter, and summer periods. The temporal pattern analyses use a subset of 30 sites over an 8-year (1979-1986) period and an expanded subset of 137 sites with greater spatial coverage over a 5-year (1982-1986) period. The 8-year period represents the longest period with wet deposition monitoring data unavailable that has a sufficient number of sites with data of known quality to allow a descriptive summary of annual temporal patterns. 19 refs., 105 figs., 29 tabs.