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- Title
Natural and anthropogenic atmospheric mercury in the European Arctic: a fractionation study.
- Authors
Steen, A. O.; Berg, T.; Dastoor, A. P.; Durnford, D. A.; Engelsen, O.; Hole, L. R.; Pfaffhuber, K. A.
- Abstract
Gaseous elemental mercury (GEM) is converted to reactive gaseous mercury (RGM) during springtime Atmospheric Mercury Depletion Events (AMDE). This study reports the longest time series of GEM, RGM and particle-bound mercury (PHg) concentrations from a European Arctic site. From 27 April 2007 until 31 December 2008 composite GEM, RGM and PHg measurements were conducted in Ny-Ålesund (78° 54' N, 11° 53' E). The average concentrations of the complete dataset were 1.6±0.3 ng m-3 , 8±13 pg m-3 and 8±25 p gm-3 for GEM, RGM and PHg, respectively. For the complete dataset the atmosphericmercury distribution was 99%GEM, whereas RGM and PHg constituted <1%. The study revealed a seasonal distribution of GEM, RGMand PHg previously undiscovered in the Arctic. Increased concentrations of RGM were observed during the insolation period from March through August, while increased PHg concentrations occurred almost exclusively during the spring AMDE period in March and April. The elevated RGM concentrations suggest that atmospheric RGMdeposition also occurs during the polar summer. RGM was suggested as the precursor for the PHg existence, but long range transportation of PHg has to be taken into consideration. Still there remain gaps in the knowledge of how RGM and PHg are related in the environment. RGM and PHg accounted for on average about 10% of the depleted GEM during AMDEs. Although speculative, the fairly low RGM and PHg concentrations supported by the predominance of PHg with respect to RGM and no clear meteorological regime associated with these AMDEs would all suggest the events to be of non-local origin. With some exceptions, no clear meteorological regime was associated with the GEM, RGMand PHg concentrations throughout the year.
- Subjects
ARCTIC regions; EUROPE; ATMOSPHERIC mercury; METEOROLOGY; CHEMICAL reactions; SPRING; TIME series analysis
- Publication
Atmospheric Chemistry & Physics, 2011, Vol 11, Issue 13, p6273
- ISSN
1680-7316
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.5194/acp-11-6273-2011