This study investigates chemical composition of rainwater (RW) and its contribution from different sources collected over the period of two years (2016 and 2017) at a high altitude location (1380 m above mean sea level) located at Mahabaleshwar situated in the Western Ghats in Peninsular India. The volume weighted mean pH of RW was found to vary between 4.57 and 7.51 (average 5.95) indicating overall alkaline nature of the RW. Prominent ionic species in the RW were Ca²⁺ (25%), Na⁺ (19%), Cl⁻(23%), SO₄²⁻ (10%), and Mg²⁺ (9%) with NH₄⁺, NO₃⁻ and K⁺ together forming about 8% of ionic composition. Moreover, ample presence of dust source (Ca²⁺) was found that acted as a major neutraliser to the acidic ions. The order of Neutralisation Factor of ions was Ca²⁺ > Mg²⁺ > NH₄⁺. In addition, a strong correlation between Na⁺ and Cl⁻ (r ≈ 0.99) further suggested substantial supplement of marine (NaCl) component to the RW. The impact of local anthropogenic activities such as fossil fuel/biomass burning was observed apart from some contribution from the long-range transport. The high contribution of non-sea salt fractions to Ca²⁺, SO₄²⁻, Mg²⁺ and K⁺ showed a substantial effect of crustal and continental air masses. Results of source apportionment for the RW composition by using the Positive Matrix Factorization technique indicated four factors i.e. Marine and long range transport (Na⁺, Cl⁻), crustal (Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺), emissions from the fossil fuel and biomass burning (NO₃⁻, SO₄²⁻) and the agriculture/farming activities (NH₄⁺).

本研究调查了两年（2016 年和 2017 年）在位于西高止山脉 Mahabaleshwar 的高海拔地区（平均海平面以上 1380 米）收集的雨水 (RW) 的化学成分及其不同来源的贡献。印度半岛。 RW 的体积加权平均 pH 值在 4.57 和 7.51 之间变化（平均 5.95），表明 RW 的整体碱性。 RW 中的主要离子种类为 Ca ²⁺ (25%)、Na ⁺ (19%)、Cl ⁻ (23%)、SO ₄ ²⁻ (10%) 和 Mg ²⁺ (9%) 以及 NH ₄ ⁺、NO ₃ ^-和K ⁺一起形成约8%的离子组成。此外，发现大量存在的粉尘源（Ca ²⁺ ）充当酸性离子的主要中和剂。离子中和因子的顺序为Ca ²⁺ > Mg ²⁺ > NH ₄ ⁺。此外，Na ⁺和 Cl ^-之间的强相关性（r ≈ 0.99）进一步表明 RW 中大量补充了海洋（NaCl）成分。除了远距离运输的一些贡献之外，还观察到当地人类活动（例如化石燃料/生物质燃烧）的影响。非海盐组分对Ca ²⁺、SO ₄ ²⁻、Mg ²⁺和K ⁺的高贡献表明地壳和大陆气团的显着影响。使用正矩阵分解技术对RW成分进行源解析的结果表明了四个因素，即海洋和远距离传输（Na ⁺， Cl^{​​ -}），地壳（Ca ²⁺， Mg ²⁺），化石燃料和生物质的排放燃烧（NO ₃ ⁻、SO ₄ ²⁻）和农业/耕作活动（NH ₄ ⁺）。