Temporal characteristics and fog water collection during summer in Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain)

The study of fog dynamics in the island of Tenerife began in 1993 at six sites. The analysis of the relationship between fog and several meteorological parameters was conducted at the site located at Anaga. Anaga is located at the summit of a mountain range, at an altitude of 842 m and 3.5 km away from the north-western coastline of the island. The study uses hourly data of the three summer months (June, July and August) that were collected over a period of nine years — from 1996 to 2005. The mean summer (June–August) rainfall was found to be 21.2 mm whilst the total volume of fog water collected was 879.9 l m^− 2; the daily average fog water collection was 9.5 l m^− 2 day^− 1, and the hourly average about 0.4 l m^− 2 h^− 1. Although these amounts were recorded with wind speeds of between 8 and 12 m s^− 1, the correlation between water collected and wind speed is not statistically significant. In spite of this, the volume of fog water collected and wind speed showed a very distinct daily behavioural pattern, their frequency and speed reaching their minimum at 12 a.m. and their maximum from 7 p.m. to 8 a.m. GMT. The importance of this research is that it shows that the fog in the Canary Islands occurs more frequently and makes a more significant contribution to the growth of vegetation in the summer (the dry season) than in the winter, when fog accompanies rainfall.     

Ecophysiology of atmospheric moisture in the Namib Desert

Although the Namib Desert is classified as hyperarid, with rainfall extremely rare, there are several other sources of atmospheric moisture, namely, humidity, dew and fog, which make it possible for organisms to live there. Methods to use these sources include locating moist micro-climates, drinking from wet surfaces, consuming moist food, collecting water on the body, and absorbing water vapour. In describing these mechanisms from published sources, we highlight the work of Professor Gideon Louw, to whom we dedicate this paper. Louw's pioneering work on water relations and economy, which includes osmoregulation in desert plants and animals such as grass, beetles, and springbok, established a foundation that inspired numerous studies by colleagues and students. Ecophysiology provides many more lessons that have potential to be mimicked and applied in the occult collection of water in arid regions.     

An economical optical cloud/fog detector

A new, relatively low cost instrument has been developed to detect the presence of fog or cloud for fog/cloud sampling applications. The instrument uses attenuation of an 880 nm light emitting diode signal to detect cloud/fog drops in the optical path between a sending and receiving arm. Laboratory and field testing under a variety of conditions and fog types were carried out to determine the ability of the optical fog detector (OFD) to accurately detect cloud/fog presence as well as to provide some measure of liquid water content. Results indicated that the OFD provided a reliable estimate of fog presence as well as a reasonable estimate of liquid water content (LWC) under several different conditions. The OFD does appear to have an interference from rain, resulting in an overestimation of LWC during rainfall. This may occasionally give a false positive indication of fog presence.     

Changes of cloud water chemical composition in the Western Sudety Mountains, Poland

The changing chemical composition of cloud water and precipitation in the Western Sudety Mountains are discussed against the background of air-pollution changes in the Black Triangle since the 1980s until September 2004. A marked reduction of sulphur dioxide emissions between the early 1990's and the present (from almost 2 million tons to around 0.2 million tons) has been observed, with a substantial decline of sulphate and hydrogen concentration in cloud water (SO₄²⁻ from more than 200 to around 70 μmol l^− 1; H⁺ from 150 to 50 μmol l^− 1) and precipitation (SO₄²⁻ from around 80 to 20–30 μmol l^− 1; H⁺ from around 60 to 10–15 μmol l^− 1) samples. At some sites, where fog/cloud becomes the major source of pollutants, deposition hot spots are still observed where, for example, nitrogen deposition can exceed 20 times the relevant critical load. The results show that monitoring of cloud water chemistry can be a sensitive indicator of pollutant emissions.     

The degree of Cl-loss for the particulate matter (PM) and fog water sampled at the same air mass at the Hachimantai mountain range in northern Japan

It is well known that sea-salt aerosols in particulate matter (PM) react with acids such as H₂SO₄ and HNO₃ during transportation and thereby lose chloride ions (Cl-loss). The PM and fog were sampled concurrently at different altitudes in the Hachimantai mountain range, northern Japan. The PM and fog sampled at different altitudes had nearly identical properties for the ion components. However, the PM was in a Cl-depleted state (more than 80% of all samples), but the fog water was not in so Cl-depleted state (less than 29%). As a result, it could be explained that this phenomenon caused because the fog droplets took up the gaseous state HCl other than sea-salt PM. After all Cl^- in the fog water recovered and was rather rich compared with the sea-salt or the PM by the uptake of the gaseous state HCl. Moreover, it was found that for PM_coarse(2.5 < D < 10), 86% of the acid (H₂SO₄ and HNO₃) was consumed for Cl-loss reactions and/or for dissolution of Ca and Mg in soil particles.     

我国大雾的气候特征及变化初步解释

为了分析全国范围内大雾的气候特征及变化，利用1950年以来我国气象系统地面观测网679个国家基本（基准）站的大雾天气现象观测资料，分析了我国大雾空间、时间分布的基本气候特征。从整体来看，我国大雾分布呈现东南部多西北部少的特点。在月大雾的日数、月最多大雾日数、大雾季节分布中都显示出北南、西东的地区差异及局地明显的特征。分析表明，我国大部分地区大雾日数呈减少趋势。而浓雾出现的年日数变化不明显；文章对大雾日数的变化原因进行了初步解释。     

Exploring fog as a supplementary water source in Namibia

Namibia is an arid country where many rural and urban centres depend on ephemeral rivers for their water supply. These water sources are, however, limited and display seasonal salinisation. Fog occurs along the coast and extends for some distance inland, and it could be used as a source of drinking water. Data on groundwater salinisation and fog deposition were collected at villages of the indigenous communities and at the Gobabeb Training and Research Centre (GTRC) in the Central Namib Desert. Fog collection experiments were done with Standard Fog Collectors (SFCs) and 1-m² fog collectors made from the Raschel mesh that is used in SFCs from 1996 onwards. The results indicate that fog occurs throughout the year and that it has low major ion concentrations (chemical composition). The period of high fog deposition coincides with that of high groundwater salinity and would suit mixing of the two waters to provide water of good drinking quality to people in these areas. In conclusion, fog is a viable source of water in the Namib and could supplement traditional sources in rural settlements and perhaps also in urban water supply schemes in this region as in other parts of the world where it is used as a source of drinking water.

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江面雾的形成及其预报

用１９８９－１９９２年江心固定囤船平台上观测到的第一手资料分析表明，江面才总日数少于陆地，但一次过程持续时间比陆地长。江面雾发生时常伴有风，最大风速达１０ｍ／ｓ，风玫瑰图表明，占优势的风向是ＳＥ、Ｅ和Ｓ，江雾常处于成片雾片区，这些差异，与江、陆之间温度日变化和风切变有关。另外，本文对江面雾的预报也作了探讨。     

The chemical composition of fogs and intercepted clouds in the United States

Over the past decade, the chemical compositions of fogs and intercepted clouds have been investigated at more than a dozen locations across the United States. Sampling sites have been located in the northeast, southeast, Rocky Mountain, and west coast regions of the US. They include both pristine and heavily polluted locations. Frontal/orographic clouds (warm and supercooled), intercepted coastal stratiform clouds, and radiation fogs have all been examined. Sample pH values range from below 3 to above 7. Major ions also exhibit a wide concentration range, with clouds at some locations exhibiting high sea salt concentrations, while composition at other locations is dominated by ammonium and sulfate or nitrate.     

Pollutant concentrations in fog and low cloud water at selected sites of the Czech Republic

In this paper, the basic composition of fog and low cloud water are presented, resulting from the analyses of water samples from 111 fog/cloud events. The samples were collected at five sites located in various regions of the Czech Republic. Two sampling sites are in mountainous regions and three sites represent various urban areas. The mountain stations are located in two regions of the Czech Republic with different industry types. At all the sites, active fog collectors were employed. In the water samples, the conductivity, acidity (pH), cations (H⁺, Na⁺, K⁺, NH₄⁺, Mg²⁺, Ca²⁺) and anions (F⁻, Cl⁻, NO₃⁻, SO₄²⁻) were determined.A mean pH value of about 4.5 was obtained at mountain sites whereas the measurements in urban areas showed mean pH values from 4.9 to 6.4. The mean conductivity values in the samples from the two mountain stations were 137 and 191.5 μS cm⁻¹. The samples from urban sites showed mean values between 127.7 and 654.4 μS cm⁻¹. The maximum concentration means for the three dominant pollutants (expressed by the ratio mountain sites/urban sites) are 32.9/99.6 mg l⁻¹ for NO₃⁻, 32.5/192.9 mg l⁻¹ for SO₄²⁻ and 18.5/52.7 mg l⁻¹ for NH₄⁺. As expected, we found higher ion concentrations in the northern part of the Czech Republic where larger numbers of lignite-burning power plants, chemical factories and opencast lignite mines are located. A decrease in ion concentrations was observed at higher altitude sites, probably reflecting at least in part higher liquid water contents at these locations.