Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions
www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net
1680-7367
1680-7375
9
6
2009
10.5194/acpd-9-27167-2009
http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/9/27167/2009/
http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/9/27167/2009/acpd-9-27167-2009.html
http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/9/27167/2009/acpd-9-27167-2009.pdf
27167
27194
2009-12-16
Effects of temperature and other atmospheric conditions on long-term gaseous mercury observations in the Arctic
A. S. Cole
amanda.cole@ec.gc.ca
A. Steffen
Air Quality Research Division, Environment Canada, 4905 Dufferin St., Toronto, Ontario M3H 5T4, Canada
Gaseous elemental mercury (GEM) measurements at Alert,
Canada, from 1995 to 2007 were analyzed for statistical time
trends and for correlations with meteorological and climate
data. A significant decreasing trend in annual GEM
concentration is reported at Alert, with an estimated slope of
−0.0086 ng m<sup>−3</sup> yr<sup>−1</sup> (−0.6% yr<sup>−1</sup>) over
this 13-year period. It is shown that there has been a shift
in the month of minimum mean GEM concentration from May to
April due to a change in the timing of springtime atmospheric
mercury depletion events (AMDEs). These AMDEs are found to
decrease with increasing local temperature within each month, both at
Alert and at Amderma, Russia. These results agree with the
temperature dependence suggested by previous experimental
results and theoretical kinetic calculations and highlight the
potential for changes in Arctic mercury chemistry with
climate. A correlation between total monthly AMDEs at Alert
and the Polar/Eurasian Teleconnection Index was observed only
in March, perhaps due to higher GEM inputs in early spring in
those years with a weak polar vortex. A correlation of AMDEs
at Alert with wind direction supports the origin of mercury
depletion events over the Arctic Ocean, in agreement with
a previous trajectory study of ozone depletion
events. Interannual variability in total monthly depletion
event frequency at Alert does not appear to correlate
significantly with total or first-year northern hemispheric
sea ice area or with other major teleconnection patterns. Nor
do AMDEs at either Alert or Amderma correlate with local wind
speed, as might be expected if depletion events are sustained
by stable, low-turbulence atmospheric conditions. The data
presented here – both the change in timing of depletion
events and their relationship with temperature – can be used
as additional constraints to improve the ability of global
models to predict the cycling and deposition of mercury in the
Arctic.
Adams,~J W., Holmes,~N S., and Crowley,~J N.: Uptake and reaction of HOBr on frozen and dry NaCl$/$NaBr surfaces between 253 and 233 K, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 2, 79–91, 2002.
Andersson,~M E., Sommar,~J., Gardfeldt,~K., and Lindqvist,~O.: Enhanced concentrations of dissolved gaseous mercury in the surface waters of the Arctic Ocean, Mar. Chem., 110, 190–194, 2008.
Ariya,~P., Dastoor,~A., Amyot,~M., Schroeder,~W., Barrie,~L., Anlauf,~K., Raofie,~F., Ryzhkov,~A., Davignon,~D., Lalonde,~J., and Steffen,~A.: The Arctic: A~sink for mercury, Tellus B, 56, 397–403, 2004.
Bottenheim,~J. and Chan,~E.: A~trajectory study into the origin of spring time Arctic boundary layer ozone depletion, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos, 111, D19301, doi:10.1029/2006JD007055, 2006.
Brooks,~S., Lindberg,~S., Southworth,~G., and Arimoto,~R.: Springtime atmospheric mercury speciation in the McMurdo, Antarctica coastal region, Atmos. Environ., 42, 2885–2893, 2008.
Christensen,~J H., Brandt,~J., Frohn,~L M., and Skov,~H.: Modelling of mercury in the Arctic with the Danish Eulerian Hemispheric Model, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 4, 2251–2257, 2004.
Cosimo,~J C.: Arctic warming signals from satellite observations, Weather, 61, 70–76, 2006.
Dastoor,~A P., Davignon,~D., Theys,~N., van Roozendael,~M., Steffen,~A., and Ariya,~P A.: Modeling dynamic exchange of gaseous elemental mercury at polar sunrise, Environ. Sci. Technol., 42, 5183–5188, 2008.
Dommergue,~A., Ferrari,~C., Gauchard,~P.-A., Boutron,~C F., Poissant,~L., Pilote,~M., Jitaru,~P., and Adams,~F C.: The fate of mercury species in a~sub-arctic snowpack during snowmelt, Geophys. Res. Lett., 30, 1621, \doi10.1029/2003GL017308, 2003.
Draxler,~R R. and Rolph,~G D.: HYSPLIT (HYbrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory) Model access via NOAA ARL READY Website (http://www.arl.noaa.gov/HYSPLIT.php). Silver Spring, MD, NOAA Air Resources Laboratory, 2003.
Environment Canada. Climate Services: http://www.climate.weatheroffice.ec.gc.ca/, access: July 2008.
Fan,~S.-M. and Jacob,~D J.: Surface ozone depletion in Arctic spring sustained by bromine reactions on aerosols, Nature, 359, 522–524, 1992.
Fetterer,~F., Knowles,~K., Meier,~W., and Savoie,~M. Sea Ice Index: http://nsidc.org/data/g02135.html, access: 2009 Boulder, CO, National Snow and Ice Data Center, 2002, updated 2009.
Gilbert,~R O.: Statistical Methods for Environmental Pollution Monitoring, Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, New York, 204–240 pp., 1987.
Goodsite,~M E., Plane,~J M C., and Skov,~H.: A~theoretical study of the oxidation of \chemHg^0 to \chemHgBr_2 in the troposphere, Environ. Sci. Technol., 38, 1772–1776, 2004.
Grieg,~G., Gunning,~H E., and Strausz,~O P.: Reactions of metal atoms. II The combination of mercury and bromine atoms and the dimerization of HgBr, J. Chem. Phys., 52, 3684–3690, 10.1063/1.1673544, 1970.
Kaleschke,~L., Richter,~A., Burrows,~J P., Afe,~O., Heygster,~G., Notholt,~J., Rankin,~A M., Roscoe,~H K., Hollwedel,~J., Wagner,~T., and Jacobi,~H.-W.: Frost flowers on sea ice as a~source of sea salt and their influence on tropospheric halogen chemistry, Geophys. Res. Lett., 31, L16114, \doi16110.11029/12004GL020655., 2004.
Lehrer,~E., Hönninger,~G., and Platt,~U.: A~one dimensional model study of the mechanism of halogen liberation and vertical transport in the polar troposphere, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 4, 2427–2440, 2004.
Li,~C., Cornett,~J., Willie,~S., and Lam,~J.: Mercury in Arctic air: The long-term trend, Sci. Total Environ., 407, 2756–2759, 2009.
Lindberg,~S E., Brooks,~S., Lin,~C J., Scott,~K J., Landis,~M S., Stevens,~R K., Goodsite,~M E., and Richter,~A.: Dynamic oxidation of gaseous mercury in the Arctic troposphere at polar sunrise, Environ. Sci. Technol., 36, 1245–1256, 2002.
Nghiem,~S V., Chao,~Y., Neumann,~G., Li,~P., Perovich,~D K., Street,~T., and Clemente-Colon,~P.: Depletion of perennial sea ice in the East Arctic Ocean, Geophys. Res. Lett., 33, L17501, \doi10.1029/2006GL027198, 2006.
Pacyna,~E G., Pacyna,~J M., Steenhuisen,~F., and Wilson,~S.: Global anthropogenic mercury emission inventory for 2000, Atmos. Environ., 40, 4048–4063, 2006.
Piot,~M. and von Glasow,~R.: The potential importance of frost flowers, recycling on snow, and open leads for ozone depletion events, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 8, 2437–2467, 2008.
Sander,~R., Burrows,~J., and Kaleschke,~L.: Carbonate precipitation in brine – a~potential trigger for tropospheric ozone depletion events, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 6, 4653–4658, 2006.
Schroeder,~W H., Anlauf,~K G., Barrie,~L A., Lu,~J Y., Steffen,~A., Schneeberger,~D R., and Berg,~T.: Arctic springtime depletion of mercury, Nature, 394, 331–332, 1998.
Sharma,~S., Andrews,~E., Barrie,~L A., Ogren,~J A., and Lavoué,~D.: Variations and sources of the equivalent black carbon in the high Arctic revealed by long-term observations at Alert and Barrow: 1989–2003, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 111, D14208, \doi10.1029/2005JD006581, 2006.
Simpson,~W R., Alvarez-Aviles,~L., Douglas,~T A., and Sturm,~M.: Halogens in the coastal snow pack near Barrow, Alaska: Evidence for active bromine air-snow chemistry during springtime, Geophys. Res. Lett., 32, L04811, \doi10.1029/2004GL021748, 2005.
Simpson,~W R., Carlson,~D., Hönninger,~G., Douglas,~T A., Sturm,~M., Perovich,~D., and Platt,~U.: First-year sea-ice contact predicts bromine monoxide (BrO) levels at Barrow, Alaska better than potential frost flower contact, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 7, 621–627, 2007.
Skov,~H., Christensen,~J H., Heidam,~N Z., Jensen,~B., Wahlin,~P., and Geernaert,~G.: Fate of elemental mercury in the Arctic during atmospheric depletion episodes and the load of atmospheric mercury to the Arctic, Environ. Sci. Technol., 38, 2373–2382, 2004.
Slemr,~F., Brunke,~E.-G., Labuschagne,~C., and Ebinghaus,~R.: Total gaseous mercury concentrations at the Cape Point GAW station and their seasonality, Geophys. Res. Lett., 35, L11807, \doi10.1029/2008GL033741, 2008.
Steffen,~A. and Schroeder,~W. Standard operating procedures manual for total gaseous mercury measurements: Canadian Atmospheric Mercury Measurements Network (CAMNet), Toronto, Canada, Environment Canada, 1999.
Steffen,~A., Schroeder,~W., Bottenheim,~J., Narayan,~J., and Fuentes,~J.: Atmospheric mercury concentrations: measurements and profiles near snow and ice surfaces in the Canadian Arctic during Alert 2000, Atmos. Environ., 36, 2653–2661, 2002.
Steffen,~A., Schroeder,~W., Macdonald,~R., Poissant,~L., and Konoplev,~A.: Mercury in the Arctic atmosphere: An analysis of eight years of measurements of GEM at Alert (Canada) and a~comparison with observations at Amderma (Russia) and Kuujjuarapik (Canada), Sci. Total Environ., 342, 185–198, 2005.
Steffen,~A., Douglas,~T., Amyot,~M., Ariya,~P., Aspmo,~K., Berg,~T., Bottenheim,~J., Brooks,~S., Cobbett,~F., Dastoor,~A., Dommergue,~A., Ebinghaus,~R., Ferrari,~C., Gardfeldt,~K., Goodsite,~M E., Lean,~D., Poulain,~A J., Scherz,~C., Skov,~H., Sommar,~J., and Temme,~C.: A~synthesis of atmospheric mercury depletion event chemistry in the atmosphere and snow, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 8, 1445–1482, 2008.
Tarasick,~D W. and Bottenheim,~J W.: Surface ozone depletion episodes in the Arctic and Antarctic from historical ozonesonde records, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 2, 197–205, 2002.
van Belle,~G. and Hughes,~J P.: Nonparametric tests for trend in water quality, Water Resour. Res., 20, 127–136, 1984.
Vogt,~R., Crutzen,~P J., and Sander,~R.: A~mechanism for halogen release from sea-salt aerosol in the remote marine boundary layer, Nature, 383, 327–330, 1996.