References

ACP

Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics

ACP

Atmos. Chem. Phys.

1680-7324

Copernicus Publications

Göttingen, Germany

10.5194/acp-10-6063-2010

Long range transport of mercury to the Arctic and across Canada

Durnford

¹ Dastoor

¹ Figueras-Nieto

¹ Ryjkov

Air Quality Research Division, Environment Canada, 2121 TransCanada Highway, Dorval, QC, H9P 1J3, Canada

06 07 2010

10 13 6063 6086

2010

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

This article is available from https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/10/6063/2010/acp-10-6063-2010.html

The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/10/6063/2010/acp-10-6063-2010.pdf

This study is the most extensive study to date on the transport of mercury to the Arctic. Moreover, it is the first such study to use a fully-coupled, online chemical transport model, Environment Canada's Global/Regional Atmospheric Heavy Metals model (GRAHM), where the meteorology and mercury processes are fully integrated. It is also the only study to date on the transport of mercury across Canada. We estimated source attribution from Asia, North America, Russia and Europe at six arctic verification stations, as well as three subarctic and eight midlatitude Canadian stations. <br><br> We have found that Asia, despite having transport efficiencies that were almost always lower than those of North America and often lower than those of Russia, was the dominant source of gaseous atmospheric mercury at all verification stations: it contributed the most mercury (29–37% at all stations, seasons and levels considered), its concentrations frequently explained nearly 100% of the variability in the concentrations produced by the simulation performed with full global emissions, particularly in the absence of local sources, and it generated the most long range transport (LRT) events, causing 43%, 67% and 75% of the events at the arctic, subarctic and midlatitude stations, respectively. For the Arctic, Russian transport efficiencies tended to be the strongest, as expected, while European and Asian efficiencies were lower and higher, respectively, than those found in the literature. This disagreement is likely produced by mercury's long lifetime relative to that of other pollutants. The accepted springtime preference for the trans-Pacific transport of Asian pollution was evident only in the midlatitude group of stations, being masked in the arctic and subarctic groups by the occurrence of atmospheric mercury depletion events. Some neighbouring arctic stations recorded dissimilar numbers of LRT events; despite their proximity, the behaviour of mercury at these stations was governed by different dynamics and transport pathways. The column burden of GEM in the lowest 5 km of the Northern Hemisphere was largest in summer from Asia, North America and Russia, but in winter from Europe. In the vertical, transport of mercury from all source regions occurred principally in the mid-troposphere.

References 1

Almeida, M. D., Lacerda, L. D., Bastos, W. R., and Herrmann, J. C.: Mercury loss from soils following conversion from forest to pasture in Rondonia, Western Amazon, Brazil, Environ. Pollut., 137, 179–186, 2005.

Berg, T., Aspmo, K., and Steinnes, E.: Transport of Hg from atmospheric mercury depletion events to the mainland of Norway and its possible influence on Hg deposition, Geophys. Res. Lett., 35, L09802, https://doi.org/10.1029/2008GL033586, 2008.

Bertschi, I. T. and Jaffe, D. A.: Long-range transport of ozone, carbon monoxide, and aerosols to the NE Pacific troposphere during the summer of 2003: Observations of smoke plumes from Asian boreal fires, J. Geophys. Res., 110, D05303, https://doi.org/10.1029/2004JD005135, 2005.

Côté, J., Desmarais, J.-G., Gravel, S., Méthot, A., Patoine, A., Roch, M., and Staniforth, A.: The operational CMC-MRB Global Environmental Multiscale (GEM) Model: Part II – Results, Mon. Weather Rev., 126, 1397–1418, 1998a.

Côté, J., Gravel, S., Méthot, A., Patoine, A., Roch, M., and Staniforth, A.: The operational CMC-MRB Global Environmental Multiscale (GEM) Model: Part I – Design considerations and formulation, Mon. Weather Rev., 126, 1373–1395, 1998b.

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.

Dastoor, A. P. and Larocque, Y.: Global circulation of atmospheric mercury: a modelling study, Atmos. Environ., 38, 147–161, 2004.

Ding, A., Wang, T., Xue, L., Gao, J., Stohl, A., Lei, H., Jin, D., Ren, Y., Wang, X., Wei, X., Qui, Y., Liu, J., and Zhang, X.: Transport of north China air pollution by midlatitude cyclones: Case study of aircraft measurements in summer 2007, J. Geophys. Res., 114, D11399, https://doi.org/10.1029/2009JD012339, 2009.

Eleftheriadis, K., Vratolis, S., and Nyeki, S.: Aerosol black carbon in the European Arctic: Measurements at Zeppelin station, Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard from 1998-2007, Geophys. Res. Lett., 36, L02809, https://doi.org/10.1029/2008GL035741, 2009.

Faïn, X., Obrist, D., Hallar, A. G., Mccubbin, I., and Rahn, T.: High levels of reactive gaseous mercury observed at a high elevation research laboratory in the Rocky Mountains, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 9, 8049–8060, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-9-8049-2009, 2009.

Fitzgerald, W. F., Engstrom, D. R., Lamborg, C. H., Tseng, C.-M., Balcom, P. H., and Hammerschmidt, C. R.: Modern and historic atmospheric mercury fluxes in northern Alaska: Global sources and Arctic depletion, Environ. Sci. Technol., 39, 557–568, 2005.

Fouquart, Y. and Bonnel, B.: Computations of solar heating of the earth's atmosphere: a new parameterization, Contrib. Atmos. Phys., 53, 35–62, 1980.

Garand, L. and Mailhot, J.: The influence of infrared radiation on numerical weather forecasts, in: Proceedings of the Seventh Conference on Atmospheric Radiation, San Francisco, USA, 23–27 July 1990, J146–J151, 1990.

Gbor, P. K., Wen, D., Meng, F., Yang, F., and Sloan, J. J.: Modeling of mercury emission, transport and deposition in North America, Atmos. Environ., 41, 1135–1149, 2007.

Goulet, R. R., Holmes, J., Page, B., Poissant, L., Siciliano, S. D., Lean, D. R. S., Wang, F., Amyot, M., and Tessier, A.: Mercury transformations and fluxes in sediments of a riverine wetland, Geochim. Cosmochim. Ac., 71, 3393–3406, 2007.

Jaffe, D., Prestbo, E., Swartzendruber, P., Weiss-Penzias, P., Kato, S., Takami, A., Hatakeyama, S., and Kajii, Y.: Export of atmospheric mercury from Asia, Atmos. Environ., 39, 3029–3038, 2005.

Jiang, J. H., Livesey, N. J., Su, H., Neary, L., McConnell, J. C., and Richards, N. A. D.: Connecting surface emissions, convective uplifting, and long-range transport of carbon monoxide in the upper troposphere: New observations from the Aura Microwave Limb Sounder, Geophys. Res. Lett., 34, L18812, https://doi.org/10.1029/2007GL030638, 2007.

Kim, K.-H., Ebinghaus, R., Schroeder, W. H., Blanchard, P., Kock, H. H., Steffen, A., Froude, F. A., Kim, M.-Y., Hong, S., and Kim, J.-H.: Atmospheric mercury concentrations from several observatory sites in the Northern Hemisphere, J. Atmos. Chem., 50, 1–24, 2005.

Law, K. S. and Stohl, A.: Arctic air pollution: origins and impacts, Science, 315, 1537–1540, 2007.

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, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-4-2427-2004, 2004.

Liang, Q., Jaeglé, L., Jaffe, D. A., Weiss-Penzias, P., Heckman, A., and Snow, J. A.: Long-range transport of Asian pollution to the northeast Pacific: Seasonal variations and transport pathways of carbon monoxide, J. Geophys. Res., 109, D23S07, https://doi.org/10.1029/2003JD004402, 2004.

Lin, C.-J., Cheng, M.-D., and Schroeder, W. H.: Transport patterns and potential sources of total gaseous mercury measured in Canadian high Arctic in 1995, Atmos. Environ., 35, 1141–1154, 2001.

Lin, C.-J., Pongprueksa, P., Lindberg, S. E., Pehkonen, S. O., Byun, D., and Jang, C.: Scientific uncertainties in atmospheric mercury models I: Model science evaluation, Atmos. Environ., 40, 2911–2928, 2006.

Lohman, K., Seigneur, C., Gustin, M., and Lindberg, S.: Sensitivity of the global atmospheric cycle of mercury to emissions, Appl. Geochem., 23, 454–466, 2008.

Mason, R.: Mercury emissions from natural processes and their importance in the global mercury cycle, Mercury fate and transport in the global atmosphere, Springer US, 173–191, 2009.

Mitchell, C. P. J., Branfireun, B. A., and Kolka, R. K.: Assessing sulfate and carbon controls on net methylmercury production in peatlands: An in situ mesocosm approach, Appl. Geochem., 23, 503–518, 2008.

Pacyna, E. G., Pacyna, J. M., Steenhuisen, F., and Wilson, S.: Global anthropogenic mercury emission inventory for 2000, Atmos. Environ., 40, 4048–4063, 2006.

Pacyna, E. G., Pacyna, J. M., Sundseth, K., Munthe, J., Kindbom, K., Wilson, S., Steenhuisen, F., Maxson, P.: Global emission of mercury to the atmosphere from anthropogenic sources in 2005 and projections to 2020, Atmos. Environ., 44, 2487–2499, 2010.

Pacyna, J. M., Pacyna, E. G., Steenhuisen, F., and Wilson, S.: Mapping 1995 global anthropogenic emissions of mercury, Atmos. Environ., 37, 109–117, 2003.

Radke, L. F., Friedli, H. R., and Heikes, B. G.: Atmospheric mercury over the NE Pacific during spring 2002: Gradients, residence time, upper troposphere lower stratosphere loss, and long-range transport, J. Geophys. Res., 112, D19305, https://doi.org/10.1029/2005JD005828, 2007.

Ryaboshapko, A., Bullock Jr., O. R., Christensen, J., Cohen, M., Dastoor, A., Ilyin, I., Petersen, G., Syrakov, D., Artz, R., Davignon, D., Draxler, R. R., and Munthe, J.: Intercomparison study of atmospheric mercury models: 1. Comparison of models with short-term measurements, Sci. Total Environ., 376, 228–240, 2007a.

Ryaboshapko, A., Bullock Jr., O. R., Christensen, J., Cohen, M., Dastoor, A., Ilyin, I., Petersen, G., Syrakov, D., Travnikov, O., Artz, R., Davignon, D., Draxler, R. R., Munthe, J., and Pacyna, J.: Intercomparison study of atmospheric mercury models: 2. Modelling results vs. long-term observations and comparison of country deposition budgets, Sci. Total Environ., 377, 319–333, 2007b.

Schroeder, W. H. and Munthe, J.: Atmospheric mercury – an overview, Atmos. Environ., 32, 809–822, 1998.

Shetty, S. K., Lin, C.-J., Streets, D. G., and Jang, C.: Model estimate of mercury emission from natural sources in East Asia, Atmos. Environ., 42, 8674–8685, 2008.

Shindell, D. T., Chin, M., Dentener, F., Doherty, R. M., Faluvegi, G., Fiore, A. M., Hess, P., Koch, D. M., MacKenzie, I. A., Sanderson, M. G., Schultz, M. G., Schulz, M., Stevenson, D. S., Teich, H., Textor, C., Wild, O., Bergmann, D. J., Bey, I., Bian, H., Cuvelier, C., Duncan, B. N., Folberth, G., Horowitz, L. W., Jonson, J., Kaminski, J. W., Marmer, E., Park, R., Pringle, K. J., Schroeder, S., Szopa, S., Takemura, T., Zeng, G., Keating, T. J., and Zuber, A.: A multi-model assessment of pollution transport to the Arctic, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 8, 5353–5372, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-8-5353-2008, 2008.

Steen, A. O., Berg, T., Dastoor, A. P., Durnford, D. A., Hole, L. R., and Pfaffhuber, K. A.: Dynamic exchange of gaseous elemental mercury during polar night and day, Atmos. Environ., 43, 5604–5610, 2009.

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.

Stohl, A.: Characteristics of atmospheric transport into the Arctic troposphere, J. Geophys. Res., 111, D11306, https://doi.org/10.1029/2005JD006888, 2006.

Stohl, A., Eckhardt, S., Forster, C., James, P., and Spichtinger, N.: On the pathways and timescales of intercontinental air pollution transport, J. Geophys. Res., 107, 4684, https://doi.org/10.1029/2001JD001396, 2002.

Strode, S. A., Jaeglé, L., Jaffe, D. A., Swartzendruber, P. C., Selin, N. E., Holmes, C., and Yantosca, R. M.: Trans-Pacific transport of mercury, J. Geophys. Res., 113, D15305, https://doi.org/10.1029/2007JD009428, 2008.

Sunderland, E. M., Krabbenhoft, D. P., Moreau, J. W., Strode, S. A., and Landing, W. M.: Mercury sources, distribution, and bioavailability in the North Pacific Ocean: Insights from data and models, Global Biogeochem. Cy., 23, GB2010, https://doi.org/10.1029/2008GB003425, 2009.

Swartzendruber, P. C., Jaffe, D. A., and Finley, B.: Improved fluorescence peak integration in the Tekran 2537 for applications with sub-optimal sample loadings, Atmos. Environ., 43, 3648–3651, 2009.

Travnikov, O.: Contribution of the intercontinental atmospheric transport to mercury pollution in the Northern Hemisphere, Atmos. Environ., 39, 7541–7548, 2005.

Wang, K., Zhang, Y., Jang, C., Phillips, S., and Wang, B.: Modeling intercontinental air pollution transport over the trans-Pacific region in 2001 using the Community Multiscale Air Quality modeling system, J. Geophys. Res., 114, D04307, https://doi.org/10.1029/2008JD010807, 2009.

Warneke, C., Bahreini, R., Brioude, J., Brock, C. A., de Gouw, J. A., Fahey, D. W., Froyd, K. D., Holloway, J. S., Middlebrook, A., Miller, L., Montzka, S., Murphy, D. M., Peischl, J., Ryerson, T. B., Schwarz, J. P., Spackman, J. R., and Veres, P.: Biomass burning in Siberia and Kazakhstan as an important source for haze over the Alaskan Arctic in April 2008, Geophys. Res. Lett., 36, L02813, https://doi.org/10.1029/2008GL036194, 2009.

Weiss-Penzias, P., Jaffe, D. A., Swartzendruber, P., Dennison, J. B., Chand, D., Hafner, W., and Prestbo, E.: Observations of Asian air pollution in the free troposphere at Mount Bachelor Observatory during the spring of 2004, J. Geophys. Res., 111, D10304, https://doi.org/10.1029/2005JD006522, 2006.

Weiss-Penzias, P., Jaffe, D., Swartzendruber, P., Hafner, W., Chand, D., and Prestbo, E.: Quantifying Asian.and biomass burning sources of mercury using the Hg/CO ratio in pollution plumes observed at the Mount Bachelor Observatory, Atmos. Environ., 41, 4366–4379, 2007.

Zhang, L., Brook, J. R., and Vet, R.: A revised parameterization for gaseous dry deposition in air-quality models, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 3, 2067–2082, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-3-2067-2003, 2003.

Zhang, L., Gong, S., Padro, J., and Barrie, L. A.: A size-segregated particle dry deposition scheme for an atmospheric aerosol module, Atmos. Environ., 35, 549–560, 2001.