Underestimation of atmospheric oxidized mercury at a mountaintop site by the GEOS-Chem chemical transport model

Elgiar, Tyler R.; Dhar, Loknath; Gratz, Lynne; Hallar, A. Gannet; Volkamer, Rainer; Lyman, Seth N.

doi:10.5194/acp-25-16387-2025

Articles | Volume 25, issue 22

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-16387-2025

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

Special issue:

Mercury science to inform international policy: the Multi-Compartment...

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-16387-2025

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

Articles | Volume 25, issue 22

Research article

|

21 Nov 2025

Research article |

| 21 Nov 2025

Underestimation of atmospheric oxidized mercury at a mountaintop site by the GEOS-Chem chemical transport model

Tyler R. Elgiar, Loknath Dhar, Lynne Gratz, A. Gannet Hallar, Rainer Volkamer, and Seth N. Lyman

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-16387-2025-supplement

Data sets

Measurements of atmospheric mercury, trace gases, aerosols, and meteorology at Storm Peak Laboratory, Colorado, in 2021 and 2022 Lynne Gratz et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10699270

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Short summary

We compare verified atmospheric mercury measurements against output from the GEOS-Chem photochemical transport model. We show the model is unable to reproduce measured atmospheric oxidized mercury concentrations, even in several cases where oxidation rates in the model are enhanced.