Dry and Wet Deposition

Abstract

Deposition phenomena are the way in which the atmosphere cleans itself. The process is efficient as only a few gases (most notably CO 2) show signs of global increase in spite of the large emission of pollutants from both natural and anthropogenic sources. There are two types of deposition mechanisms: dry deposition, i.e., the uptake at the earth’s surface (soil, water, or vegetation), and wet deposition, i.e., absorption into droplets followed by droplet precipitation (e.g., by rain) or impaction on the earth’s surface (e.g., fog droplets).