Comparison of mercury concentrations measured at several sites in the Southern Hemisphere

Our knowledge of the distribution of mercury concentrations in air of the Southern Hemisphere was until recently based mostly on intermittent measurements made during ship cruises. In the last few years continuous mercury monitoring has commenced at several sites in the Southern Hemisphere, providin...

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Published in:Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
Main Authors: Slemr, F., Angot, H., Dommergue, A., Magand, O., Barret, M., Weigelt, A., Ebinghaus, R., Brunke, E.-G., Pfaffhuber, K. A., Edwards, G., Howard, D., Powell, J., Keywood, M., Wang, F.
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-3125-2015
https://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/15/3125/2015/
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spelling ftcopernicus:oai:publications.copernicus.org:acp27344 2023-05-15T13:22:31+02:00 Comparison of mercury concentrations measured at several sites in the Southern Hemisphere Slemr, F. Angot, H. Dommergue, A. Magand, O. Barret, M. Weigelt, A. Ebinghaus, R. Brunke, E.-G. Pfaffhuber, K. A. Edwards, G. Howard, D. Powell, J. Keywood, M. Wang, F. 2018-09-16 application/pdf https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-3125-2015 https://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/15/3125/2015/ eng eng doi:10.5194/acp-15-3125-2015 https://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/15/3125/2015/ eISSN: 1680-7324 Text 2018 ftcopernicus https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-3125-2015 2019-12-24T09:53:41Z Our knowledge of the distribution of mercury concentrations in air of the Southern Hemisphere was until recently based mostly on intermittent measurements made during ship cruises. In the last few years continuous mercury monitoring has commenced at several sites in the Southern Hemisphere, providing new and more refined information. In this paper we compare mercury measurements at several remote sites in the Southern Hemisphere made over a period of at least 1 year at each location. Averages of monthly medians show similar although small seasonal variations at both Cape Point and Amsterdam Island. A pronounced seasonal variation at Troll research station in Antarctica is due to frequent mercury depletion events in the austral spring. Due to large scatter and large standard deviations of monthly average median mercury concentrations at Cape Grim, no systematic seasonal variation could be found there. Nevertheless, the annual average mercury concentrations at all sites during the 2007–2013 period varied only between 0.85 and 1.05 ng m −3 . Part of this variability is likely due to systematic measurement uncertainties which we propose can be further reduced by improved calibration procedures. We conclude that mercury is much more uniformly distributed throughout the Southern Hemisphere than the distributions suggested by measurements made onboard ships. This finding implies that smaller trends can be detected in shorter time periods. We also report a change in the trend sign at Cape Point from decreasing mercury concentrations in 1996–2004 to increasing concentrations since 2007. Text Amsterdam Island Antarc* Antarctica Copernicus Publications: E-Journals Austral Grim ENVELOPE(-64.486,-64.486,-65.379,-65.379) Troll ENVELOPE(2.534,2.534,-72.002,-72.002) Troll research station ENVELOPE(2.534,2.534,-72.002,-72.002) Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 15 6 3125 3133
institution Open Polar
collection Copernicus Publications: E-Journals
op_collection_id ftcopernicus
language English
description Our knowledge of the distribution of mercury concentrations in air of the Southern Hemisphere was until recently based mostly on intermittent measurements made during ship cruises. In the last few years continuous mercury monitoring has commenced at several sites in the Southern Hemisphere, providing new and more refined information. In this paper we compare mercury measurements at several remote sites in the Southern Hemisphere made over a period of at least 1 year at each location. Averages of monthly medians show similar although small seasonal variations at both Cape Point and Amsterdam Island. A pronounced seasonal variation at Troll research station in Antarctica is due to frequent mercury depletion events in the austral spring. Due to large scatter and large standard deviations of monthly average median mercury concentrations at Cape Grim, no systematic seasonal variation could be found there. Nevertheless, the annual average mercury concentrations at all sites during the 2007–2013 period varied only between 0.85 and 1.05 ng m −3 . Part of this variability is likely due to systematic measurement uncertainties which we propose can be further reduced by improved calibration procedures. We conclude that mercury is much more uniformly distributed throughout the Southern Hemisphere than the distributions suggested by measurements made onboard ships. This finding implies that smaller trends can be detected in shorter time periods. We also report a change in the trend sign at Cape Point from decreasing mercury concentrations in 1996–2004 to increasing concentrations since 2007.
format Text
author Slemr, F.
Angot, H.
Dommergue, A.
Magand, O.
Barret, M.
Weigelt, A.
Ebinghaus, R.
Brunke, E.-G.
Pfaffhuber, K. A.
Edwards, G.
Howard, D.
Powell, J.
Keywood, M.
Wang, F.
spellingShingle Slemr, F.
Angot, H.
Dommergue, A.
Magand, O.
Barret, M.
Weigelt, A.
Ebinghaus, R.
Brunke, E.-G.
Pfaffhuber, K. A.
Edwards, G.
Howard, D.
Powell, J.
Keywood, M.
Wang, F.
Comparison of mercury concentrations measured at several sites in the Southern Hemisphere
author_facet Slemr, F.
Angot, H.
Dommergue, A.
Magand, O.
Barret, M.
Weigelt, A.
Ebinghaus, R.
Brunke, E.-G.
Pfaffhuber, K. A.
Edwards, G.
Howard, D.
Powell, J.
Keywood, M.
Wang, F.
author_sort Slemr, F.
title Comparison of mercury concentrations measured at several sites in the Southern Hemisphere
title_short Comparison of mercury concentrations measured at several sites in the Southern Hemisphere
title_full Comparison of mercury concentrations measured at several sites in the Southern Hemisphere
title_fullStr Comparison of mercury concentrations measured at several sites in the Southern Hemisphere
title_full_unstemmed Comparison of mercury concentrations measured at several sites in the Southern Hemisphere
title_sort comparison of mercury concentrations measured at several sites in the southern hemisphere
publishDate 2018
url https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-3125-2015
https://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/15/3125/2015/
long_lat ENVELOPE(-64.486,-64.486,-65.379,-65.379)
ENVELOPE(2.534,2.534,-72.002,-72.002)
ENVELOPE(2.534,2.534,-72.002,-72.002)
geographic Austral
Grim
Troll
Troll research station
geographic_facet Austral
Grim
Troll
Troll research station
genre Amsterdam Island
Antarc*
Antarctica
genre_facet Amsterdam Island
Antarc*
Antarctica
op_source eISSN: 1680-7324
op_relation doi:10.5194/acp-15-3125-2015
https://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/15/3125/2015/
op_doi https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-3125-2015
container_title Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
container_volume 15
container_issue 6
container_start_page 3125
op_container_end_page 3133
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