Long-term trends in rain and cloud chemistry in a region of complex topography

Abstract

Rain and cloud water from a high-elevation site and an adjacent lower-level site in the northern Pennines of England were sampled and analysed between 1994 and 2008. The comparison of wet deposition and rainfall depth at the high and low-level sites has been used to estimate the additional deposition of pollutants arising from ‘seeder–feeder’ enhancement by washout of the orographic cap cloud that forms over the high-level site. The derived ‘orographic scavenging ratio’ for different ions is used to map the orographic enhancement of wet deposition across the U.K. The ratio of ion concentrations in cloud and in rain at the high-level site is also important for estimating the input of pollutants through the direct capture of cloud water droplets at high elevation sites.Long-term trends in ion concentrations in cloud and rain showed significant downward trends in non-sea sulphate, and a weaker downward trend in nitrate, but no trend in other ions. There was also no trend in the orographic scavenging ratios, implying that the methods used to estimate orographic enhancement across the U.K. are robust over time.