Atmospheric gaseous elemental mercury in the Arctic: role of long-range transport and sea ice

Qiu, Yue and Yue, Fange and Bei, Jiang and Xie, Zhouqing (2024) Atmospheric gaseous elemental mercury in the Arctic: role of long-range transport and sea ice. Advances in Polar Science, 35 (4). pp. 449-458.

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Abstract

The potential sources of atmospheric mercury in the Arctic are still not well understood. Here, we analyzed the round-year observations of atmospheric gaseous elemental mercury (GEM) concentrations in 2010 at two sites in the Arctic: Zeppelin Observatory (78.90°N, 11.88°E) and Alert Observatory (82.47°N, 62.50°W). The results showed clearly different characteristics at these two sites. During the winter of 2010, the long-range transport of anthropogenic emissions was the dominant factor for elevated GEM at Zeppelin Observatory while which had little contribution to GEM at Alert Observatory. The change in GEM at Zeppelin Observatory during January, February and October was dominated by long-range transported anthropogenic emissions. The emission inventory combined with backward trajectory analysis suggested that the main sources were unintentional industrial sources, stationary combustion sources, and intentional use and product waste-associated sectors, which contributed 49%, 33%, and 18%, respectively. Potential source contribution function analysis was then conducted and found that Europe was the important source region. During the summer of 2010, sea ice concentration was an important factor affecting GEM at Alert Observatory while which had little effect on GEM at Zeppelin Observatory. These results further indicated the role of anthropogenic sources and climate warming on the spatial variation in GEM over the Arctic.

Item Type:	Article
Related URLs:
Keywords:	mercury, anthropogenic emissions, sea ice, Arctic
Subjects:	Natural Environment > Atmosphere Natural Environment > Cryosphere
Organizations:	Unspecified
Date Deposited:	06 Jan 2025 11:38
URI:	http://library.arcticportal.org/id/eprint/2856

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