An evaluation of the airborne pollen–precipitation relationship with the superposed epoch method

Author： Pérez Claudio Gassmann Maria Covi Mauro

ISSN： 0393-5965

Source： Aerobiologia, Vol.25, Iss.4, 2009-12, pp. : 313-320

Disclaimer: Any content in publications that violate the sovereignty, the constitution or regulations of the PRC is not accepted or approved by CNPIEC.

Previous Menu Next

Abstract

A statistical analysis was performed on a sample of 4 days sequences in which rainfall occurred during the second day, in order to establish airborne pollen–precipitation relationships. Drizzle (precipitation ≤ 1 mm) and rain (precipitation > 1 mm) events were considered as well as arboreal or non-arboreal pollen. Results showed that arboreal pollen decreases synchronically with the occurrence of a drizzle, registering the minimum value the following day of the precipitation occurrence. The high frequencies of fog and wet soil associated with the following day of drizzle occurrence support the hypothesis that besides the wash out, airborne pollen concentration could decrease by nucleation and impaction processes. As well, diurnal variation suggests that high humidity conditions could also affect pollen emission as already demonstrated by other authors.