Trends in sulfate dry deposition over mixed dipterocarp forest in Thailand using relaxed eddy accumulation method

• Main Authors: Kan Khoomsab, Pojanie Khummongkol, Kazuhide Matsuda
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2014
• Online Access: http://journalarticle.ukm.my/6922/1/06_Kan_Khoomsab.pdf; http://journalarticle.ukm.my/6922/; http://www.ukm.my/jsm/
• Institution: Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia

The relaxed eddy accumulation method (REA) was applied for direct measurement of sulfate fluxes over mixed dipterocarp forest. The sampling system using a four-stage filter pack was designed to take updraft or downdraft air samples in the direction of the vertical wind velocity. The deadband of the velocity profile was set at ±0.5 σw in which an air sample with velocity within the set value is rejected. The forest site was located at a latitude of 13o 35’ 13.3’’N and longitude of 99o 30’ 3.9’’E Ratchaburi province in Thailand. The sampling period was set in 4 time intervals: 6-12, 12-18, 18-24 and 24-6 h for 3 consecutive days/month (n=144) throughout one year. All the micrometeorological parameters for flux estimation were measured in real time. The concentration and flux of sulfate were found to reach a peak value of 1.32 μg m-3 and 8.35 μg m-2 h-1, respectively, at noon time which indicated the effect of atmospheric instability caused by a high heat transfer during the day. The one-year average deposition velocity was observed to be 0.24 cm s-1.The coefficient β obtained under high ambient temperature and a humid environment in this tropical climate was 0.49. It has also been observed that βis relatively insensitive to atmospheric stability.