Impact of Acid Gases on Total Precipitation Over Iraqi Stations

Acid gas is a type of natural gas or any other gas mixture that contains significant quantities of hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide, sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, hydrogen halides, or similar acidic gases. Acid gases form acidic solutions when dissolved in water. A major cause of acid rain is emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide, which react with water molecules in the atmosphere to produce acids. Acid rain refers to a mixture of wet and dry precipitation from the atmosphere that contains more than normal amounts of nitric and sulfuric acids. In this study, the data of the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) as total precipitation (Tp), as well as the Vertical Column amount of SO2 from the Giovanni Center were adopted. The purpose of the research was to find the relationship between rain and sulfur dioxide in Baghdad, Mosul, and Basra cities for the period (2003-2016). The study was carried out for monthly and annual (or yearly) data variations. To find the correlation strengths of the relationship between Total precipitation (Tp) and sulfur dioxide, the correlation coefficients of Spearman’s rho test (rs) were used. It was found that the relationship between (Tp Vs. CO2) and (Tp Vs. SO2) for Mosul station was inverse and positive, with a value of 0.7 that’s due to sulfur water eyes. Also, CO2 was found throughout all months but with different ratios, where the highest concentration was in 2016 in all the stations.