Sulfate released from fossil fuels

Borek

H₂SO₃ or sulfurous acid.

No idea what you mean by "sulfur ion".

SO₂, apart from reacting with water, undergoes series of reactions that end in another sulfur oxide/another acid.

ASidd

I am studying the environmental affects of sulfate (sorry should have written sulfate ion)
which is SO4
so If I write down acid rain which is essentially H2SO4 hydrogen+sulfate ion I won't get marked down would I? just checking because our teacher told us to be very specific and careful with what we write down.

ASidd

SO you need to make H2SO3 to lower pH to then make H2SO4 from that?

Borek

SO₄^2-

And I am afraid what you wrote - "H2SO4 hydrogen+sulfate ion" - suggests you don't know the details of things you are writing about. I can only guess that you tried to list sulfuric acid and porducts of its dissociation.

No, these things go at the same time. Part of SO₂ gets dissolved and lowers pH, other part gets oxidized to SO₃ and reacts with water creating sulfuric acid. But as the reaction between SO₂ and water is easily reversible, some of the SO₂ that initially acidified water can later leave the solution and get oxidized. There are several equilibria present.

chemisttree

... and SO3 has been coming directly out of tailpipes for quite some time now. The automotive catalyst itself can oxidize SO2 to SO3 under lean burn conditions.