Modeling of mercury emission, transport and deposition in North America

Gbor, Philip K.; Wen, Dong; Fan, Meng; Yang, Fuquan; Sloan, J. J.

doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2006.10.005

Cited by 86 publications

(53 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Illinois-Wisconsin). Additional error in our treatment of emissions may be incurred by omitting natural sources and re-emissions (Gbor et al, 2007;Lin et al, 2012).…”

Section: Observations and Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A number of studies have used these data to evaluate CMAQ-Hg (Bash, 2010;Bullock and Brehme, 2002;Bullock et al, 2008Bullock et al, , 2009Gbor et al, 2006Gbor et al, , 2007Lin et al, 2007;Lin and Tao, 2003;Pongprueksa et al, 2008;Sunderland et al, 2008;Vijayaraghavan et al, 2007), and other atmospheric chemistry models that include mercury (Cohen et al, 2004;Holmes et al, 2010;Sanei et al, 2010;Seigneur et al, 2003;Selin and Jacob, 2008;Vijayaraghavan et al, 2008). Until recently, most studies that evaluate model estimates of ambient mercury compare with Total Gaseous Mercury (TGM) and/or Hg 0 (Gbor et al, 2006(Gbor et al, , 2007Holmes et al, 2010;Lin and Tao, 2003;Lohman et al, 2008;Selin et al, 2007;Soerensen et al, 2010;Wen et al, 2011).…”

Section: T Holloway Et Al: An Assessment Of Atmospheric Mercury In mentioning

confidence: 99%

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An assessment of atmospheric mercury in the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model at an urban site and a rural site in the Great Lakes Region of North America

et al. 2012

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Abstract. Quantitative analysis of three atmospheric mercury species -gaseous elemental mercury (Hg 0 ), reactive gaseous mercury (RGHg) and particulate mercury (PHg) -has been limited to date by lack of ambient measurement data as well as by uncertainties in numerical models and emission inventories. This study employs the Community Multiscale Air Quality Model version 4.6 with mercury chemistry (CMAQ-Hg), to examine how local emissions, meteorology, atmospheric chemistry, and deposition affect mercury concentration and deposition the Great Lakes Region (GLR), and two sites in Wisconsin in particular: the rural Devil's Lake site and the urban Milwaukee site. Ambient mercury exhibits significant biases at both sites. Hg 0 is too low in CMAQ-Hg, with the model showing a 6 % low bias at the rural site and 36 % low bias at the urban site. Reactive mercury (RHg = RGHg + PHg) is over-predicted by the model, with annual average biases > 250 %. Performance metrics for RHg are much worse than for mercury wet deposition, ozone (O 3 ), nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ), or sulfur dioxide (SO 2 ). Sensitivity simulations to isolate background inflow from regional emissions suggests that oxidation of imported Hg 0 dominates model estimates of RHg at the rural study site (91 % of base case value), and contributes 55 % to the RHg at the urban site (local emissions contribute 45 %).

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“…Illinois-Wisconsin). Additional error in our treatment of emissions may be incurred by omitting natural sources and re-emissions (Gbor et al, 2007;Lin et al, 2012).…”

Section: Observations and Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: T Holloway Et Al: An Assessment Of Atmospheric Mercury In mentioning

confidence: 99%

An assessment of atmospheric mercury in the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model at an urban site and a rural site in the Great Lakes Region of North America

et al. 2012

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“…Emissions from natural sources and re-emissions of previously deposited mercury are based on global budgets (Gbor et al, 2007;Shetty et al, 2008;Mason, 2009). Natural emissions are spatially distributed according to the natural enrichments of mercury.…”

Section: Gem-mach-hg Is the Mercury Version Of The Eccc's Current Opementioning

confidence: 99%

How important is biomass burning in Canada to mercury contamination?

Fraser¹,

Dastoor²,

Ryjkov³

2017

Preprint

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Abstract.Wildfire frequency has increased in past four decades in Canada, and is expected to increase in future as a result of climate change (Wotton et. al. 2010). Mercury (Hg) emissions from biomass burning are known to be significant; however, the impact of biomass burning on air concentration and deposition fluxes in Canada has not been previously quantified. We use 10 estimates of burned biomass from FINN (Fire Inventory from NCAR) and vegetation-specific Emission Factors (EFs) of mercury to investigate the spatiotemporal variability of Hg emissions in Canada. We use Environment and Climate Change Canada's GEM-MACH-Hg (Global Environmental Multi-scale, Modelling Air quality and Chemistry model, mercury version) to quantify the impact of biomass burning in Canada on spatiotemporal variability of air concentrations and deposition fluxes of mercury in Canada. We use North American gaseous elemental mercury (GEM) observations (2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015), 15 and an inversion technique to optimize the emission factors for GEM for five vegetation types represented in North American fires to constrain the biomass burning impacts of mercury. We use three biomass burning Hg emissions scenarios in Canada to conduct three sets of model simulations for 2010-2015: two scenarios where Hg is emitted only as GEM using literature or optimized EFs, and a third scenario where Hg is emitted as GEM using literature EFs and particle bound mercury (PBM) emitted using the average GEM/PBM ratio from lab measurements. The three biomass burning emission scenarios represent the range of 20 possible values for the impacts of Hg emissions from biomass burning in Canada on Hg concentration and deposition.We find total biomass burning Hg emissions to be highly variable from year to year, and estimate average 2010-2015 total atmospheric biomass burning emissions of Hg in Canada to be between 6-14 t during the biomass burning season (i.e., from May to September), which is 3 -7 times the mercury emission from anthropogenic sources in Canada for this period. On average, 65% of the emissions occur in the provinces west of Ontario. We find that while emissions from biomass burning have a small 25 impact on surface air concentrations of GEM averaged over individual provinces/territories, the impact at individual sites can be as high as 95% during burning events. We estimate average annual mercury deposition from biomass burning in Canada to be between 0.3 -2.8 t, compared to 0.14 t of mercury deposition from anthropogenic sources during the biomass burning season in Canada. Compared to the biomass burning emissions, the relative impact of fires on mercury deposition is shifted eastward, with on average 54% percent of the deposition occurring in provinces west of Ontario. While the relative contribution of Canadian 30 biomass burning to the total mercury deposition over each province/territory is no more than 9% between 2010-2015, the local contribution in some locations (including areas downwind of biomass burning) can be as high as...

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“…In the wet deposition scheme, GEM and GOM are partitioned between cloud droplets and air using a temperature-dependent Henry's law constant. Total global emissions from natural sources and re-emissions of previously deposited Hg (from land and oceans) in GEM-MACH-Hg are based on the global Hg budgets by Gbor et al (2007), Shetty et al (2008), and . Landbased natural emissions are spatially distributed according to the natural enrichment of Hg.…”

Section: Gem-mach-hgmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multi-model study of mercury dispersion in the atmosphere: vertical and interhemispheric distribution of mercury species

et al. 2017

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Abstract. Atmospheric chemistry and transport of mercury play a key role in the global mercury cycle. However, there are still considerable knowledge gaps concerning the fate of mercury in the atmosphere. This is the second part of a model intercomparison study investigating the impact of atmospheric chemistry and emissions on mercury in the atmosphere. While the first study focused on ground-based observations of mercury concentration and deposition, here we investigate the vertical and interhemispheric distribution and speciation of mercury from the planetary boundary layer to the lower stratosphere. So far, there have been few model studies investigating the vertical distribution of mercury, mostly focusing on single aircraft campaigns. Here, we present a first comprehensive analysis based on various aircraft observations in Europe, North America, and on intercontinental flights.The investigated models proved to be able to reproduce the distribution of total and elemental mercury concentrations in the troposphere including interhemispheric trends. One key aspect of the study is the investigation of mercury oxidation in the troposphere. We found that different chemistry schemes were better at reproducing observed oxidized mercury patterns depending on altitude. High concentrations of oxidized mercury in the upper troposphere could be reproduced with oxidation by bromine while elevated concentrations in the lower troposphere were better reproduced by OH and ozone chemistry. However, the results were not always conclusive as the physical and chemical parameterizations in the chemistry transport models also proved to have a substantial impact on model results.

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Modeling of mercury emission, transport and deposition in North America

Cited by 86 publications

References 23 publications

An assessment of atmospheric mercury in the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model at an urban site and a rural site in the Great Lakes Region of North America

An assessment of atmospheric mercury in the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model at an urban site and a rural site in the Great Lakes Region of North America

How important is biomass burning in Canada to mercury contamination?

Multi-model study of mercury dispersion in the atmosphere: vertical and interhemispheric distribution of mercury species

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