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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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:b05e98916911455db06a497489ab4067 2023-05-15T13:22:31+02:00 Comparison of mercury concentrations measured at several sites in the Southern Hemisphere F. Slemr H. Angot A. Dommergue O. Magand M. Barret A. Weigelt R. Ebinghaus E.-G. Brunke K. A. Pfaffhuber G. Edwards D. Howard J. Powell M. Keywood F. Wang 2015-03-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-3125-2015 https://doaj.org/article/b05e98916911455db06a497489ab4067 EN eng Copernicus Publications http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/15/3125/2015/acp-15-3125-2015.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1680-7316 https://doaj.org/toc/1680-7324 1680-7316 1680-7324 doi:10.5194/acp-15-3125-2015 https://doaj.org/article/b05e98916911455db06a497489ab4067 Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Vol 15, Iss 6, Pp 3125-3133 (2015) Physics QC1-999 Chemistry QD1-999 article 2015 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-3125-2015 2022-12-31T05:59:41Z 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. Article in Journal/Newspaper Amsterdam Island Antarc* Antarctica Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles 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 |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Physics QC1-999 Chemistry QD1-999 |
spellingShingle |
Physics QC1-999 Chemistry QD1-999 F. Slemr H. Angot A. Dommergue O. Magand M. Barret A. Weigelt R. Ebinghaus E.-G. Brunke K. A. Pfaffhuber G. Edwards D. Howard J. Powell M. Keywood F. Wang Comparison of mercury concentrations measured at several sites in the Southern Hemisphere |
topic_facet |
Physics QC1-999 Chemistry QD1-999 |
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 |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
F. Slemr H. Angot A. Dommergue O. Magand M. Barret A. Weigelt R. Ebinghaus E.-G. Brunke K. A. Pfaffhuber G. Edwards D. Howard J. Powell M. Keywood F. Wang |
author_facet |
F. Slemr H. Angot A. Dommergue O. Magand M. Barret A. Weigelt R. Ebinghaus E.-G. Brunke K. A. Pfaffhuber G. Edwards D. Howard J. Powell M. Keywood F. Wang |
author_sort |
F. Slemr |
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 |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-3125-2015 https://doaj.org/article/b05e98916911455db06a497489ab4067 |
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 |
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Vol 15, Iss 6, Pp 3125-3133 (2015) |
op_relation |
http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/15/3125/2015/acp-15-3125-2015.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1680-7316 https://doaj.org/toc/1680-7324 1680-7316 1680-7324 doi:10.5194/acp-15-3125-2015 https://doaj.org/article/b05e98916911455db06a497489ab4067 |
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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1766365276064972800 |