The acidity of the atmosphere is increasingly determined by carbon dioxide and organic acids such as formic acid.
The acidity of the atmosphere is increasingly determined by carbon dioxide and organic acids such as formic acid. The second of these contribute to the formation of aerosol particles as a precursor of raindrops and therefore impact the growth of clouds and pH of rainwater. In previous atmospheric chemistry models of acid formation, formic acid tended to play a small role. The chemical processes behind its formation were not well understood. An international team of researchers under the aegis of Forschungszentrum Jülich has now succeeded in filling this gap and deciphering the dominant mechanism in the formation of formic acid. This makes it possible to further refine atmosphere and climate models. The results of the study have now been published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature.
IIn Germany, we are familiar with acid rain, particularly from our experience in the 1980s. The cause of it was that nitrogen oxides and sulfur oxides released into the atmosphere by human beings reacted with the water droplets in the clouds to form sulfuric acid and nitric acid. Acid rain has a pH of about 4.2–4.8, lower than that of pure rainwater (5.5–5.7), which results from the natural carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere.
Read more at Forschungszentrum Juelich
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