An application of multivariate analysis to acid rain data in Northern Italy to discriminate natural and man-made...

This paper presents the preliminary results of a study, the aim of which was to analyse the pluviometric and chemical rain data, recorded by a wet only network located in Northern Italy.More in detail, precipitations were collected on a weekly basis and chemical analysis was performed on pH, electric conductivity and Ca, Mg, Na, K, NH4, NO3, SO4, Cl concentrations.The Principal Components Analysis pointed out that the first three components are enough to explain more than 90% of the variability of the parameters. Moreover each component may have a different physical interpretation, that is the first one is mainly related to the precipitation amount, while the second to the man made and natural sources and the last one to the sea/soil contribution.