Surface-active substances on rainwater and atmospheric particles

The surface tension lowering by surface-active substances has been measured on rainwater, melted snow, and dispersions of atmospheric particles in water, with a film balance and a tensiometer. The precipitation water was sampled during 1979, 1980, and 1981 in the city of Frankfurt/Main. From measurements with the film balance technique, normalized concentrations of insoluble and weakly soluble surface-active substances have been estimated. Soluble surface-active substances were determined from measurements with a tensiometer. It was found that the normalized concentration of theinsoluble and weakly soluble surface-active material on rainwater or melted snow shows a maximum during late spring of about 2.5 · 10⁻⁷ moles/l and a minimum during wintertime of about 5 · 10⁻⁸ moles/l. These concentrations are too low to influence significantly the condensation of water vapour on cloud droplets or the evaporation of water from them. Thesoluble surface-active material on rainwater or melted snow was found to have concentrations of the order of 2 · 10⁻⁶ moles/l. These concentrations are also too small to have a significant influence on cloud physical processes.