Hailstones as cloud water composition probes: An initial assessment

This is a preliminary exploration of using hailstones as natural probes of cloud droplet chemistry Big hailstones grow primarily in the strongest updraft regions of the severest convective storms, so that if their chemical contents are representative of the cloud droplets from which they grow, they could be useful probes of chemical transport from the lower troposphere, where the anvils form and then evaporate. Results from chromatographic analyses of chloride, nitrate, nitrite, sulfate, and oxalate are presented from individual growth layers of hailstones collected from several different storms. In spite of considerable variability and possibilities of contamination from the ground, the results appear consistent enough to warrant further investigation of this possible source of data on cloud chemistry.