Constraints from observations and modeling on atmosphere–surface exchange of mercury in eastern North America

Song, Shaojie; Selin, Noelle E.; Gratz, Lynne E.; Ambrose, Jesse L.; Jaffe, Daniel A.; Shah, Viral; Jaeglé, Lyatt; Giang, Amanda; Yuan, Bin; Kaser, Lisa; Apel, Eric C.; Hornbrook, Rebecca S.; Blake, Nicola J.; Weinheimer, Andrew J.; Mauldin III, Roy L.; Cantrell, Christopher A.; Castro, Mark S.; Conley, Gary; Holsen, Thomas M.; Luke, Winston T.; Talbot, Robert

doi:10.12952/journal.elementa.000100

i

Constraints from observations and modeling on atmosphere–surface exchange of mercury in eastern North America

2016
By Song, Shaojie ; Selin, Noelle E. ; Gratz, Lynne E. ; ...

Details

Journal Title:

Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene
Personal Author:

Song, Shaojie ; Selin, Noelle E. ; Gratz, Lynne E. ; Ambrose, Jesse L. ; Jaffe, Daniel A. ; Shah, Viral ; Jaeglé, Lyatt ; Giang, Amanda ; Yuan, Bin ; Kaser, Lisa ; Apel, Eric C. ; Hornbrook, Rebecca S. ; Blake, Nicola J. ; Weinheimer, Andrew J. ; Mauldin III, Roy L. ; Cantrell, Christopher A. ; Castro, Mark S. ; Conley, Gary ; Holsen, Thomas M. ; Luke, Winston T. ; Talbot, Robert
NOAA Program & Office:

OAR (Oceanic and Atmospheric Research) ; ESRL (Earth System Research Laboratory) ; CSL (Chemical Sciences Laboratory) ; ARL (Air Resources Laboratory) ; CIRES (Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences)
Description:

Atmosphere–surface exchange of mercury, although a critical component of its global cycle, is currently poorly constrained. Here we use the GEOS-Chem chemical transport model to interpret atmospheric Hg0 (gaseous elemental mercury) data collected during the 2013 summer Nitrogen, Oxidants, Mercury and Aerosol Distributions, Sources and Sinks (NOMADSS) aircraft campaign as well as ground- and ship-based observations in terms of their constraints on the atmosphere–surface exchange of Hg0 over eastern North America. Model–observation comparison suggests that the Northwest Atlantic may be a net source of Hg0, with high evasion fluxes in summer (our best sensitivity simulation shows an average oceanic Hg0 flux of 3.3 ng m-2 h-1 over the Northwest Atlantic), while the terrestrial ecosystem in the summer of the eastern United States is likely a net sink of Hg0 (our best sensitivity simulation shows an average terrestrial Hg0 flux of -0.6 ng m-2 h-1 over the eastern United States). The inferred high Hg0 fluxes from the Northwest Atlantic may result from high wet deposition fluxes of oxidized Hg, which are in turn related to high precipitation rates in this region. We also find that increasing simulated terrestrial fluxes of Hg0 in spring compared to other seasons can better reproduce observed seasonal variability of Hg0 concentration at ground-based sites in eastern North America.
Keywords:

Atmospheric Chemistry Mathematical Models Mercury Atmospheric Chemistry Mathematical Models
Source:

Elem Sci Anth, 4, p.100, 2016
DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12952/journal.elementa.000100
Document Type:

Journal Article
Rights Information:

CC BY
Compliance:

Submitted
Main Document Checksum:

urn:sha-512:4661c652da7c91c8ea14e88fc558b17620ee5a0885cff851c76c5d3b540b5cdba8ca5daefe3873243e877340a5da2f5701bbde6dca09d85a3d55b1f74f1644c6
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https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/27203/noaa_27203_DS1.pdf
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[PDF - 1.56 MB ]

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