The impact of air pollutants on rainwater chemistry during “urban-induced heavy rainfall” in downtown Tokyo, Japan

Ryunosuke Uchiyama*, Hiroshi Okochi, Naoya Katsumi, Hiroko Ogata

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

23 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In order to clarify the impact of air pollution on the formation of sudden and locally distributed heavy rain in urban areas (hereafter UHR = urban-induced heavy rain), we analyzed inorganic ions in rainwater samples collected on an event basis over 5 years from October 2012 to December 2016 in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Hourly rainfall amounts and wet deposition fluxes of acidic components (the sum of H+, NH4+, NO3, and nonsea-salt SO42-) in UHR were 13.1 and 17.8 times larger than those in normal rainfall, respectively, indicating that large amount of air pollutants were scavenged and deposited by UHR with large amounts of rainfall. The level of air pollutants, such as NO2, SO2, and potential ozone, in the ambient air increased just before the formation of UHR and decreased sharply at the end of the UHR event. These results indicate that NO2, which was formed secondarily by oxidants, was further oxidized by HO radicals and formed HNO3 just before the formation of UHR, which was subsequently scavenged by UHR.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)6502-6519
Number of pages18
JournalJournal of Geophysical Research
Volume122
Issue number12
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2017

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Condensed Matter Physics
  • Physical and Theoretical Chemistry
  • Polymers and Plastics
  • Materials Chemistry

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