ACCIDENTAL AND PLANNED WEATHER MODIFICATION IN ILLINOIS1

ABSTRACT: Weather modification, both planned by man and that accidentally produced by man, has been under intensive study in Illinois for ten years. Most everyone in Illinois and the Midwest is living in a climate that now is modified inadvertently from its natural state. State atmospheric scientists have tackled weather modification through a series of interrelated studies beginning with climatic studies (to establish the background), experimental design studies, experimental field studies to verify changes and their causes, and finally socio-economic and environmental studies to measure the impacts of weather modification. Studies at St. Louis show that the city acts as a trigger of summer clouds and rainfall leading to 4 to 6 summer days with 3 cm or more rain somewhere just east of the city. Power plants and jet aircraft also accidentally produce climatic changes. A focus on planned weather modification has been on the design of needed midwestern experiments in rainfall enhancement and hail suppression including the societal and environmental impacts.     

Trends in Water Chemistry in a Maple Forest on a Steep Slope

Year-to-year variation in SO₄ ^2-,NO₃ ^-, Ca²⁺, K⁺, and Mg²⁺concentrations in forest floor and mineral soil percolatefrom a forested, podzolic soil at the Turkey Lakes Watershedon the Precambrian Shield was assessed for monotonic trendsbetween 1986 and 1995. Our objective was to examine howrapidly ion concentrations in soil percolate equilibratedafter stabilization of SO₄ ^2- concentrations inprecipitation. Significant negative trends were detected inmonthly Ca²⁺, and Mg²⁺ concentrations in forestfloor and SO₄ ^2-, Ca²⁺, and Mg²⁺ inmineral soil percolate during the 10-year-period. Thedecline in Ca²⁺ and Mg²⁺ was greater than annualdecreases in SO₄ ^2- and NO₃ ^- in forestfloor percolate and proportional to the reduction inSO₄ ^2- in mineral soil percolate. Response ofmineral soil percolate to a 15 mol_c L^-1SO₄ ^2- decrease in wet-only precipitation between1985 and 1986 was a gradual decline in SO₄ ^2-concentration through 1995. The five-year meanSO₄ ^2- concentration in bulk precipitation, forestfloor percolate, and mineral soil percolate decreased 8, 9and 18 mol_c L^-1 from 1986–90 to 1991–95.Microbial (mineralization of organic S) and sorption(release from and/or retention in the pool of insolubleSO₄ ^2-) processes in the soil were logicalexplanations for the observed changes in SO₄ ^2- inmineral soil percolate.     

The Effects of SO2 Pollutant on Forest Tree Needles at Mountainous Land around Izmir (Turkey)

Around the city of Izmir, Yamanlar – Manisa (north) Karabelen (south) andKemalpasa mountainous areas exist. The forested area in total covers 122,613.5 ha on these mountainous areas. This forested area has 6,146,387 m³ of wood potential. Industrial complex surroundingthe Aliaga, and thermo-electric power plants working with lignitecoal in the Soma region and some other small industrial establishmentsare located around Izmir and Manisa. These establishements have a vital importance in polluting the air. The forest, which suffers especially from SO₂ pollution, consists of Pinus brutia and Pinus nigra. Sulphur contents in 1, 2, 3 yr old needles of the trees were determined to range between 2000–8000 ppm. Microscopic investigation of the tree needles revealed that black blights on the needles indicate destruction of the cells. Annual ring thickness of trees measured showed that there has been a reduction in the forest growth and thisreduction is becoming more serious each year. Reduction in the wood production causes hundreds of billions of Turkish lira of economic loss to the Forestry Administration. It has been concluded at the end of this study that in order to stop theharm that the forests suffer, industrial establishments must pay an `ecological costs' to be added to their product cost items.     

峨眉山1998年雨水化学组成的动态变化

为了研究进入峨眉山地区污染物质的起源，从1998年4月开始在峨眉山22处设置了雨水采集点采集了雨水。本文介绍1998年峨眉山雨水化学组成随季节变化的特征。作者认为峨眉山一年中雨水可分为三期：中和期、清洁期和污染期。     

雨水资源与雨水资源的评价

本文论述了雨水资源和目前世界各地雨水利用的概况,提出了家庭用水和农业用水雨水资源评价的计算方法。     

四川酸雨的综合防治对策研究

本文在四川酸雨来源、成因、危害的基础上，结合国内外酸雨防治的经验，确定了四川酸雨的主要控制因子、控制目标和致酸污染物的削减率。针对四川的特点，提出了控制四川酸雨的战略和工程措施，为四川的经济发展、城市建设与环境保护等的规划、决策提供了科学依据。     

EVALUATION OF NEXRAD STAGE III PRECIPITATION DATA OVER A SEMIARID REGION1

This study examines NEXRAD Stage III product (hourly, cell size 4 km by 4 km) for its ability in estimating precipitation in central New Mexico, a semiarid area. A comparison between Stage III and a network of gauge precipitation estimates during 1995 to 2001 indicates that Stage III (1) overestimates the hourly conditional mean (CM) precipitation by 33 percent in the monsoon season and 55 percent in the nonmonsoon season; (2) overestimates the hourly CM precipitation for concurrent radar‐gauge pairs (nonzero value) by 13 percent in the monsoon season and 6 percent in the nonmonsoon season; (3) overestimates the seasonal precipitation accumulation by 11 to 88 percent in monsoon season and underestimates by 18 to 89 percent in the nonmonsoon season; and (4) either overestimates annual precipitation accumulation up to 28.2 percent or underestimates it up to 11.9 percent. A truncation of 57 to 72 percent of the total rainfall hours is observed in the Stage III data in the nonmonsoon season, which may be the main cause for both the underestimation of the radar rainfall accumulation and the lower conditional probability of radar rainfall detection in the nonmonsoon season. The study results indicate that the truncation caused loss of small rainfall amounts (events) is not effectively corrected by the real‐time rain gauge calibration that can adjust the rainfall rates but cannot recover the truncated small rainfall events. However, the truncation error in the monsoon season may be suppressed due to the larger rainfall rate and/or combined effect of overestimates by bright band and hail contaminations, virga, advection, etc. In general, improvement in NEXRAD performance since the monsoon season in 1998 is observed, which is consistent with the systematic improvement in the NEXRAD network.     

贵州地区酸雨作用下典型森林植被冠层淋溶规律研究

选择贵州龙里生态园为研究区域,对当地马尾松林和针阔混交林2种典型植被的冠层穿透水化学特征进行了比较,分析了酸雨作用下植被的冠层淋溶规律.对2007年6月～2008年11月的监测数据的分析结果表明,酸雨经过森林冠层后,pH值明显升高,针阔混交林对酸雨的缓冲性能优于马尾松林.在常年酸沉降作用下,2种冠层对NH4+具有较强的吸收作用,对NO3-也有一定的吸收,对当地土壤酸化起到了一定的缓冲作用.通过雨量加权计算,研究区森林冠层析出量最大是Mg2+、K+、Ca2+等营养元素离子,长期的酸雨影响易造成森林营养亏损.     

酸雨对泰山古碑石刻侵蚀的模拟研究

为研究我国华东典型山地地区的酸沉降对文物古迹的影响,选取与泰山古碑石刻材质相同的花岗石,采用pH分别为3.0、3.8、4.7、5.6的人工模拟酸雨对泰山花岗石进行周期浸泡实验,测定不同pH值下的腐蚀速率;同时利用扫描电子显微镜(SEM)观测试验前后样品表面特征;并对浸泡前后的样品表面粉末进行X射线衍射分析。实验结果表明:影响石材腐蚀的主要因素是酸雨的酸度;花岗石石样受到侵蚀后,质量减少百分数随pH值降低而增大,最大质量损失达到0.073%,而当pH值大于3.8时,石样的最终腐蚀情况基本一致,基本在0.02%左右;并且无论是高酸度酸雨,还是低酸度酸雨,都对材料外观造成了损害;蚀后样品查出了CaSO4和MgSO4相分。     

降水量对降水酸度的影响分析——以重庆为例

利用重庆市主城区5年的酸雨观测资料和降水资料,采用统计和建模的方法分析了各次降水的降水量对酸雨的影响。结果表明,降水量对酸雨的影响非常明显。降水pH值随降水量的变化总体呈双谷W型,第一个最低值位于17mm的降水量附近,pH低至3.8;第二个最低值位于40mm的降水量附近,pH低至4.0。酸雨频率的变化规律与pH值相反,呈双峰M型。pH值随降水量的变化规律各季节基本一致,除冬季因无大的降水而呈V型外,其余三个季节都呈W型。将pH值随降水量的变化分为3个主要变化区域,构造了pH值随降水量变化的经验公式,该经验公式各组成部分及公式中各参数的物理意义都非常明确,经过意义明确的简单法则和计算即可确定公式中的参数。该经验公式的精度较高,对酸雨的深入研究具有一定的参考价值。