Progress of Global Atmospheric Mercury Field Observations

Li, Jianfeng; Lee, Sandra M. Y.

doi:10.7763/jocet.2014.v2.135

Cited by 4 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Observations of atmospheric Hg are important for understanding its global biogeochemical cycle. Long-term and continuous measurements at remote sites are particularly valuable because such data help in understanding the seasonal trends and transport patterns of atmospheric Hg in a given region (Li and Lee, 2014;Pirrone et al, 2010b;Driscoll et al, 2013). In addition, the observations provide data for constraining atmospheric models of Hg.…”

Section: H Zhang Et Al: Observation and Analysis Of Speciated Atmosmentioning

confidence: 99%

Observation and analysis of speciated atmospheric mercury in Shangri-La, Tibetan Plateau, China

Zhang

Lin

et al. 2015

Atmos. Chem. Phys.

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Abstract. This study reports the concentrations and potential sources of speciated atmospheric mercury at the Shangri-La Atmosphere Watch Regional Station (SAWRS), a pristine high-altitude site (3580 m a.s.l.) in Tibetan Plateau, China. Total gaseous mercury (TGM, defined as the sum of gaseous elemental mercury, GEM, and gaseous oxidized mercury, GOM), GOM and particulate-bound mercury (PBM) were monitored from November 2009 to November 2010 to investigate the characteristics and potential influence of the Indian summer monsoon (ISM) and the Westerlies on atmospheric transport of mercury. The mean concentrations (± standard deviation) of TGM, PBM and GOM were 2.55 ± 0.73 ng m−3, 38.82 ± 31.26 pg m−3 and 8.22 ± 7.90 pg m−3, respectively. A notable seasonal pattern of TGM concentrations was observed with higher concentrations at the beginning and the end of the ISM season. High TGM concentrations (> 2.5 ng m−3) were associated with the transport of dry air that carried regional anthropogenic emissions from both Chinese domestic and foreign (e.g., Myanmar, Bay of Bengal, and northern India) sources based on analysis of HYSPLIT4 back trajectories. Somewhat lower PBM and GOM levels during the ISM period were attributed to the enhanced wet scavenging. The high GOM and PBM were likely caused by local photo-chemical transformation under low RH and the domestic biofuel burning in cold seasons.

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Section: H Zhang Et Al: Observation and Analysis Of Speciated Atmosmentioning

confidence: 99%

Observation and analysis of speciated atmospheric mercury in Shangri-La, Tibetan Plateau, China

Zhang

Lin

et al. 2015

Atmos. Chem. Phys.

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“…Given the atmosphere represents the primary pathway for the global distribution of mercury (Schroeder and Munthe, 1998;Selin, 2009;Driscoll et al, 2013), highly accurate and precise atmospheric monitoring of Hg is paramount in attaining these goals. Existing atmospheric Hg monitoring networks, such as the Global Mercury Observation System (GMOS), the Atmospheric Monitoring Network (AMNet), and the Environment and Climate Change Canada Atmospheric Mercury Monitoring (ECCC-AMM) network, have greatly improved the understanding of atmospheric Hg (Li and Lee, 2014) and the ability to develop and evaluate global atmospheric distribution models (Lin et al, 2006) such as GEOS-Chem, GLEMOS, GEM-MACH-Hg, and ECHMER-ITRADM (Travnikov et al, 2017). However, the spatial scope of these networks is limited, especially in the southern hemisphere (Li and Lee, 2014), leading to considerable gaps in the understanding of atmospheric Hg cycling.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Existing atmospheric Hg monitoring networks, such as the Global Mercury Observation System (GMOS), the Atmospheric Monitoring Network (AMNet), and the Environment and Climate Change Canada Atmospheric Mercury Monitoring (ECCC-AMM) network, have greatly improved the understanding of atmospheric Hg (Li and Lee, 2014) and the ability to develop and evaluate global atmospheric distribution models (Lin et al, 2006) such as GEOS-Chem, GLEMOS, GEM-MACH-Hg, and ECHMER-ITRADM (Travnikov et al, 2017). However, the spatial scope of these networks is limited, especially in the southern hemisphere (Li and Lee, 2014), leading to considerable gaps in the understanding of atmospheric Hg cycling. It is widely acknowledged that further network expansion will be required (Pirrone et al, 2013;Sprovieri et al, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global evaluation and calibration of a passive air sampler for gaseous mercury

et al. 2018

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Abstract. Passive air samplers (PASs) for gaseous mercury (Hg) were deployed for time periods between 1 month and 1 year at 20 sites across the globe with continuous atmospheric Hg monitoring using active Tekran instruments. The purpose was to evaluate the accuracy of the PAS vis-à-vis the industry standard active instruments and to determine a sampling rate (SR; the volume of air stripped of gaseous Hg per unit of time) that is applicable across a wide range of conditions. The sites spanned a wide range of latitudes, altitudes, meteorological conditions, and gaseous Hg concentrations. Precision, based on 378 replicated deployments performed by numerous personnel at multiple sites, is 3.6 ± 3.0 %1, confirming the PAS's excellent reproducibility and ease of use. Using a SR previously determined at a single site, gaseous Hg concentrations derived from the globally distributed PASs deviate from Tekran-based concentrations by 14.2 ± 10 %. A recalibration using the entire new data set yields a slightly higher SR of 0.1354 ± 0.016 m3 day−1. When concentrations are derived from the PAS using this revised SR the difference between concentrations from active and passive sampling is reduced to 8.8 ± 7.5 %. At the mean gaseous Hg concentration across the study sites of 1.54 ng m−3, this represents an ability to resolve concentrations to within 0.13 ng m−3. Adjusting the sampling rate to deployment specific temperatures and wind speeds does not decrease the difference in active–passive concentration further (8.7 ± 5.7 %), but reduces its variability by leading to better agreement in Hg concentrations measured at sites with very high and very low temperatures and very high wind speeds. This value (8.7 ± 5.7 %) represents a conservative assessment of the overall uncertainty of the PAS due to inherent uncertainties of the Tekran instruments. Going forward, the recalibrated SR adjusted for temperature and wind speed should be used, especially if conditions are highly variable or deviate considerably from the average of the deployments in this study (9.89 ∘C, 3.41 m s−1). Overall, the study demonstrates that the sampler is capable of recording background gaseous Hg concentrations across a wide range of environmental conditions with accuracy similar to that of industry standard active sampling instruments. Results at sites with active speciation units were inconclusive on whether the PASs take up total gaseous Hg or solely gaseous elemental Hg primarily because gaseous oxidized Hg concentrations were in a similar range as the uncertainty of the PAS.

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“…However, the spatial scope of these networks is limited, especially in the southern hemisphere (Li and Lee, 2014), leading to considerable gaps in the understanding of atmospheric Hg cycling. It is widely acknowledged that further network expansion will be required Sprovieri et al, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Existing atmospheric Hg monitoring networks, such as the Global Mercury Observation System (GMOS), the Atmospheric Monitoring Network (AMNet), and the Environment and Climate Change Canada-Atmospheric Mercury Monitoring (ECCC-AMM) network, have greatly improved understanding of atmospheric Hg (Li and Lee, 2014) and the ability to develop and evaluate global atmospheric distribution models (Lin et al, 2006) such as GEOS-Chem, GLEMOS, GEM-40 MACH-Hg, and ECHMERITRADM (Travnikov et al, 2017). However, the spatial scope of these networks is limited, especially in the southern hemisphere (Li and Lee, 2014), leading to considerable gaps in the understanding of atmospheric Hg cycling.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global evaluation and calibration of a passive air sampler for gaseous mercury

McLagan¹,

Mitchell²,

Steffen³

et al. 2018

Preprint

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Abstract. Passive air samplers (PASs) for gaseous mercury (Hg) were deployed for time periods between 1 month and 1 year at 20 sites across the globe with continuous atmospheric Hg monitoring using active Tekran instruments. The purpose was to evaluate the accuracy of the PAS vis-à-vis the industry standard active instruments and to determine a sampling rate (SR; the volume of air stripped of gaseous Hg per unit of time) that is applicable across a broad variety of 5 conditions. The sites spanned a wide range of latitudes, altitudes, meteorological conditions, and gaseous Hg concentrations. Precision, based on 378 replicated deployments performed by numerous personnel at multiple sites, is 3.6 ± 3.0 % * , confirming the PAS's excellent reproducibility and ease-of-use. Using a SR previously determined at a single site, gaseous Hg concentrations derived from the globally distributed PASs deviate from Tekran-based 10 concentrations by 14.2 ± 10 %. A recalibration using the entire new data set yields a slightly higher SR of 0.1354 ± 0.016 m 3 day -1 . When concentrations are derived from the PAS using this revised SR the difference is reduced to 8.8 ± 7.5 %. At the mean gaseous Hg concentration across the study sites of 1.54 ng m -3 , this represents an ability to resolve concentrations to within 0.13 ng . m -3 . Adjusting the sampling rate to deployment specific temperatures and wind speeds does 15 not decrease the difference in active-passive concentration further (8.7 ± 5.7 %), but reduces its variability by leading to better agreement in Hg concentrations measured at sites with very high and very low temperatures and very high wind speeds. This value (8.7 ± 5.7 %) represents a conservative assessment of the overall uncertainty of the PAS due to inherent uncertainties of the Tekran instruments. Going forward, the recalibrated SR adjusted for temperature and wind speed 20 should be used, especially if conditions are highly variable or deviate considerably from the average of the deployments in this study (9.89 °C, 3.41 m s -1 ). Overall, the study demonstrates that the sampler is capable of recording background gaseous Hg concentrations across a wide range of environmental conditions with accuracy similar to that of industry standard active sampling instruments. Results at sites with active speciation units were inconclusive on whether the PASs 25 take up total gaseous Hg or solely gaseous elemental Hg primarily because gaseous oxidized Hg concentrations were in a similar range as the uncertainty of the PAS.* subscripted numbers are not significant, but are reported to reduce rounding errors in subsequent studies (see Section 2.3 for details) Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., https://doi

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Progress of Global Atmospheric Mercury Field Observations

Cited by 4 publications

References 13 publications

Observation and analysis of speciated atmospheric mercury in Shangri-La, Tibetan Plateau, China

Observation and analysis of speciated atmospheric mercury in Shangri-La, Tibetan Plateau, China

Global evaluation and calibration of a passive air sampler for gaseous mercury

Global evaluation and calibration of a passive air sampler for gaseous mercury

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