Annual variations of the chemical composition

In Subsection 5.4.1 it was shown that there is an inverse relation between the concentration of chemical components and precipitation amount. However, the 

Annual variation ofchemicalcomposition and precipitation quantity (Prec.)over Hungary (E. Meszaros, 

We can thus conclude that the spring maximum cannot be explained either by the annual variation of source intensity at the Earth s surface or by the variation of the quantity of precipitation. It has been postulated (E. Meszaros, 1974a) that this maximum is due to the oxidation effects of tropospheric ozone, the concentration of which also has a maximum during the spring (see Fig. 13). Ozone oxidizes S02 and N02 in atmospheric liquid water (see Subsection 5.3.2) which leads to the lowering of the pH. The increase in the concentration of hydrogen ions promotes the absorption of ammonia gas from the air, as well as the transformation of insoluble mineral components (e.g. calcium carbonate) into water-soluble materials. If this speculation is correct, this process provides a non-negligible ozone sink in the 

The existence of the spring maximum was also illustrated by Soviet and Swedish precipitation chemistry data (E. Meszaros, 1974a). Furthermore, Granat (1978) has demonstrated more recently, on the basis of a large amount of data gained in the European Atmospheric Chemistry Network, that the sulfur concentration in precipitation has a maximum in March. Further evidence is needed, however, before the acceptance of the above hypothesis 

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