Acid rain Acid rain Acid rain is a rain or any other form of precipitation that is unusually acidic, meaning that it has elevated levels of hydrogen ions (low pH). It can have harmful effects on plants, aquatic animals and infrastructure. Acid rain is caused by emissions of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide, which react with the water molecules in the atmosphere to produce acids. Some governments have made efforts since the 1970s to reduce the release of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide into the atmosphere with positive results. Nitrogen oxides can also be produced naturally by lightning strikes, and sulphur dioxide
Lower sulfur oxides Jupiter's moons, and Venus contain significant amounts of sulfur oxides. Some compounds reported by early workers such as the blue "sesquioxide", SO, formed by dissolving sulfur in liquid SO appears to be a mixture of polysulfate salts of the S and S ions. These species are all very unstable and are observed as fleeting intermediates in the gas phase. At a few millibars pressure, the relative stabilities are SO > SO > SO. Sulfur monoxide (SO) and its dimer (SO) have been trapped at low temperature. Disulfur dioxide (SO) is a dimer of sulfur monoxide. It has C structure (planar).