Abstract
Precipitation samples were collected by the wet-only sampling method at Seoul from September 1993 to June 1995. Sample were analysed for the anions $(NO_3^-, NO_2^-, SO_4^{2-}, Cl^-, and F^-)$ and cations $(Na^+, K^+, Ca^{2+}, Mg^{2+}, and NH_4^+)$ in addition to pH and electric conductivity. In order to establish the chemical analysis data of high quality, the assurance checks for analytical data of precipitation were performed by considering the ion balance and by comparing the measured conductivity with the calculated conductivity. As we applied the various assurance checking methods by the ion balance used until recently to a data set measured in this study, the f value expressed as $\Sigma C/\Sigma A$ was found to be not appropriate for the data screening. Also, the scattering plot between cations and anions in each sample was found to show the general tendency of ion balance but was proved to not quantitate the standard of data screening at a data set of samples of various concentration levels. The h value defined as (A-C)/C for C $\geq$ A and (A-C)/A for C < A was used to check the ion balance. However, the standard of data screening by h value must very in response to total ion concentration of samples. In this study, the quality assurance of chemical analysis data was checked by considering both the ion balance of evaluating by h value and the conductivity balance. Further the quality control was achieved by these quality assurance methods. As the result, 67 samples among total 77 were obtained as valid. As the central tendency value for a statistical summary in the analytical parametr of samples, the volume-weighted mean value was found to represent more the general chemistry of precipitation rather than the arithmetic mean. The volume-weighted mean pH was 5.0 and 25% of samples was less than this mean. The concentrations of sufate and nitrate in precipitation were 90.4 ueq/L and 32.4 ueq/L which made up 59% and 21% of all anions. The raion of $SO_4^{2-}/(NO_3^- + NO_2^-)$ in precipitation was 2.7, which indicates that the contributions of $H_2SO_4$ and $HNO_3$ to the acidity of precipitation are 70% and 30%, respectively.