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CHEMISTRY SNOW [1 record]

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Record 1 1985-08-29

English

Subject field(s)
  • Chemistry
  • Air Pollution
CONT

What determines the chemistry of rain and snow? The water comes from evaporation and transpiration (water vapor lost by plants) and is essentially distilled, or pure. Once the vapor reaches the atmosphere, however, it condenses on solid particles and soon reaches equilibrium with atmospheric gases. One of the gases is carbon dioxide (CO2), and as carbon dioxide dissolves in the water carbonic acid (H2CO3) forms. Carbonic acid, being a weak acid, dissociates only slightly in distilled water, yielding hydrogen ions and bicarbonate ions (HCO3-). At normal concentrations and pressures of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere the pH of rain and snow would be 5.6.

OBS

La forme "Snow chemistry" a été proposée par analogie à "rain chemistry", attesté dans WAQUB-E, 1983, vol. 8, no 2, p.59.

French

Domaine(s)
  • Chimie
  • Pollution de l'air

Spanish

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