The 1993 Ground-based Cloud Experiment on Great Dun Fell used a wide range of measurements of trace gases, aerosol particles and cloud droplets at five sites to study their sources and sinks especially those in cloud. These measurements have been interpreted using a variety of models. The conclusions add to our knowledge of air pollution, acidification of the atmosphere and the ground, eutrophication and climate change. The experiment is designed to use the hill cap cloud as a flow-through reactor, and was conducted in varying levels of pollution typical of much of the rural temperate continental northern hemisphere in spring-time. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.