Atmospheric mercury: recent advances in theoretical, computational, experimental, observational, and isotopic understanding to decipher its redox transformations in the upper and lower atmosphere and interactions with Earth surface reservoirs

Sommar, Jonas O.; Shi, Xinyu; Tang, Xueling; Sun, Guangyi; Lin, Che-Jen; Feng, Xinbin

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-12233-2025

Articles | Volume 25, issue 19

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-12233-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-12233-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 25, issue 19

Review article

|

08 Oct 2025

Review article |

| 08 Oct 2025

Atmospheric mercury: recent advances in theoretical, computational, experimental, observational, and isotopic understanding to decipher its redox transformations in the upper and lower atmosphere and interactions with Earth surface reservoirs

Jonas O. Sommar, Xinyu Shi, Xueling Tang, Guangyi Sun, Che-Jen Lin, and Xinbin Feng

Data sets

Published data used to create the plots in Figure 12, Figure 13a, Figure 13b, Figure 13c \& Figure 14 J. O. Sommar https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17079781

Short summary

A more thorough understanding of the complex processes involved in the atmospheric Hg cycle has been achieved. The dynamics of the cycle are influenced by a rapid redox chemistry with several oxidation states and effects of multiphase interactions. This review provides a detailed analysis of the atmospheric chemistry of Hg in both the lower and the upper atmosphere, together with a synthesis of the latest kinetic, thermochemical, photochemical, and isotopic fractionation data.