title: Ionic composition of wet precipitation over the southern slope of central Himalayas, Nepal.
abstract: Severe atmospheric pollution transported to Himalayas from South Asia may affect fragile ecosystem and can be harmful for human health in the region. In order to understand the atmospheric chemistry in the southern slope of central Himalayas, where the data is limited, precipitation has been sampled at four sites: Kathmandu (1,314 m), Dhunche (2, 065 m), Dimsa (3,078 m), and Gosainkunda (4,417 m) in Nepal for over a 1-year period characterized by an urban, rural, and remote sites, respectively. HCO3 − is the dominant anion, while the NH4 + is the dominant cation in precipitation at the four sites. Generally, most of ions (e.g., SO4 2−, NO3 −, NH4 +, HCO3 −, and Ca2+) have higher concentrations in urban site compared to the rural sites. Neutralization factor calculation showed that precipitation in the region is highly neutralized by NH4 + and Ca2+. Empirical orthogonal function and correlation analysis indicated that the precipitation chemistry was mostly influenced by crustal, anthropogenic, and marine sources in Nepal. Among different sites, urban area was mostly influenced by anthropogenic inputs and crustal dusts, whereas remote sites were mostly from marine and crustal sources. Seasonal variations show higher ionic concentrations during non-monsoon seasons mainly due to limited precipitation amount. On the other hand, lower ionic concentrations were observed during monsoon season when higher amount of precipitation washes out aerosols. Thus, precipitation chemistry from this work can provide a useful database to evaluate atmospheric environment and its impacts on ecosystem in the southern slope of central Himalayas, Nepal.
authors.forename: Lekhendra
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tripathee
authors.forename: Shichang
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Mika
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sillanpää
authors.forename: Chhatra Mani
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.forename: Zoe Lucia
authors.initials: ZL
authors.lastname: Lüthi
authors.forename: Junming
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: Rukumesh
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Paudyal
mesh_terms: D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000032:analysis; D000838:Anions / Q000032:analysis*; D002412:Cations / Q000032:analysis*; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D009390:Nepal; D011891:Rain / Q000737:chemistry*; D012621:Seasons; D012914:Snow / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D000393:Air Pollutants; D000838:Anions; D002412:Cations