Premium
Temperature correction of electrical conductivity values
Author(s) -
Calles Bengt,
Calles Ulla Maria
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
earth surface processes and landforms
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.294
H-Index - 127
eISSN - 1096-9837
pISSN - 0197-9337
DOI - 10.1002/esp.3290150708
Subject(s) - snowmelt , electrical resistivity and conductivity , conductivity , measure (data warehouse) , soil science , environmental science , materials science , thermodynamics , hydrology (agriculture) , chemistry , geology , snow , meteorology , geotechnical engineering , physics , computer science , quantum mechanics , database
Abstract For a number of applications in geoscience, electrical conductivity of water is often used as a collective measure of the concentration of dissolved solids. A method for temperature correction of electrical conductivity data based on regression analysis of the actual temperature/conductivity relationship of a number of water samples from natural streams is presented. It is shown that the generally used formulae for temperature correction give corrected results that deviate considerably from the values determined by actual measurements. The error increases with decreasing water temperature and may result in data that deviate by as much as 20 per cent from the true values. The implications are thus especially important for measurements of solute loads and concentrations during periods of low stream water tetaperatures e.g. during snowmelt.