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DYNAMIC OXIDATION OF GASEOUS MERCURY IN THE ARCTIC TROPOSPHERE AT POLAR SUNRISE
Citation:
Lindberg, S. E., S. Brooks, C. J. Lin, K. J. Scott, M. S. LANDIS, R. K. STEVENS, M. Goodsite, AND A. Richter. DYNAMIC OXIDATION OF GASEOUS MERCURY IN THE ARCTIC TROPOSPHERE AT POLAR SUNRISE. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 36(6):1245-1256, (2002).
Impact/Purpose:
The overall research objective of this task is to improve our understanding of the emission, transport, transformation, and deposition of atmospheric mercury. Information garnered from this research is used to improve and evaluate EPA deterministic models that are used to investigate the (i) relative impact to local, regional, and global sources to atmospheric mercury deposition, and (ii) benefits of various emission reduction scenarios.
Specifically, individual research project objectives are listed below:
(1) Evaluate the ability of speciated mercury (Hg0, Hg2+, HgP) measurements to aid source apportionment models in identifying anthropogenic source contributions to atmospheric mercury deposition
(2) Elucidate the contribution of coal combustion sources to observed mercury wet deposition in the Ohio River Valley
(3) Obtain atmospheric profiles (200 - 12,000 ft) of speciated ambient mercury off the south Florida Coast
- Evaluate the role of long range transport of RGM to Florida in the marine free troposphere.
- Identify any vertical mercury gradients that might indicate the presence of rapid mercury chemistry in air or in cloud water.
(4) Conduct research at Mauna Loa Observatory to elucidate elemental mercury oxidation in the remote marine free troposphere.
(5) Conduct laboratory kinetics experiments to determine the rate constants of elemental mercury oxidation to gaseous inorganic divalent mercury species from atmospheric halide species (e.g. BrO, ClO).
Description:
Gaseous elemental mercury (Hg0) is a globally distributed air toxin with a long atmospheric residence time. Any process that reduces it atmospheric lifetime increases its potential accumulation in the biosphere. Our data from Barrow, AK, at 71 N show that rapid, photochemically driven oxidation of boundary-layer Hg0 after polar sunrise, probably by reactive halogens, creates a rapidly depositing species of oxidized gaseous mercury in the remote Arctic troposphere at concentrations in excess of 900 pg m-3. The mercury accumulates in the snowpack during polar spring at an accelerated rate in a from that is bioavailable to bacteria and is released with snowmelt during the summer emergence of the Arctic ecosystem. Evidence suggests that this is a recent phenomenon that may be occurring throughout the earth's polar regions.