Initial Estimates of Mercury Emissions to the Atmosphere from Global Biomass Burning

Friedli, H.; Arellano, A. F.; Cinnirella, Sergio; Pirrone, Nicola

doi:10.1021/es802703g

Cited by 152 publications

(140 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…12. However, the TGM/CO ratio was 0.01124 ng g −1 ppb −1 (1.80 × 10 −6 mol mol −1 ), which is more than 10 times higher than the reported world average biomass burning ratio but was close to ratios observed in Taiwan in October (1.28 × 10 −6 , verified from anthropogenic plumes) (Sheu et al, 2010;Friedli et al, 2009). Therefore, in this event, the major contributor should be the industrial sources from southeast Asia.…”

Section: Transboundary Transport Of Hg Facilitated By Monsoonsmentioning

confidence: 51%

Monsoon-facilitated characteristics and transport of atmospheric mercury at a high-altitude background site in southwestern China

Hui

Lin

et al. 2016

Atmos. Chem. Phys.

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Abstract. To better understand the influence of monsoonal climate and transport of atmospheric mercury (Hg) in southwestern China, measurements of total gaseous mercury (TGM, defined as the sum of gaseous elemental mercury, GEM, and gaseous oxidized mercury, GOM), particulate bound mercury (PBM) and GOM were carried out at Ailaoshan Station (ALS, 2450 m a.s.l.) in southwestern China from May 2011 to May 2012. The mean concentrations (± SD) for TGM, GOM and PBM were 2.09 ± 0.63, 2.2 ± 2.3 and 31.3 ± 28.4 pg m −3 , respectively. TGM showed a monsoonal distribution pattern with relatively higher concentrations (2.22 ± 0.58 ng m −3 , p = 0.021) during the Indian summer monsoon (ISM, from May to September) and the east Asia summer monsoon (EASM, from May to September) periods than that (1.99 ± 0.66 ng m −3 ) in the non-ISM period. Similarly, GOM and PBM concentrations were higher during the ISM period than during the non-ISM period. This study suggests that the ISM and the EASM have a strong impact on longrange and transboundary transport of Hg between southwestern China and south and southeast Asia. Several high TGM events were accompanied by the occurrence of northern wind during the ISM period, indicating anthropogenic Hg emissions from inland China could rapidly increase TGM levels at ALS due to strengthening of the EASM. Most of the TGM and PBM events occurred at ALS during the non-ISM period. Meanwhile, high CO concentrations were also observed at ALS, indicating that a strong south tributary of westerlies could have transported Hg from south and southeast Asia to southwestern China during the non-ISM period. The biomass burning in southeast Asia and anthropogenic Hg emissions from south Asia are thought to be the source of atmospheric Hg in remote areas of southwestern China during the non-ISM period.

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Section: Transboundary Transport Of Hg Facilitated By Monsoonsmentioning

confidence: 51%

Monsoon-facilitated characteristics and transport of atmospheric mercury at a high-altitude background site in southwestern China

Hui

Lin

et al. 2016

Atmos. Chem. Phys.

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“…3.5. Friedli et al (2009) estimate larger biomass burning emissions of 675 ± 240 Mg a −1 based on satellite-derived fire area and biome-specific emission factors, but our results here are not sensitive to this difference because these emissions are relatively small in any case. The model no longer includes emissions through plant transpiration because of field evidence that this process is unimportant (Gustin et al, 2004).…”

Section: Emissionsmentioning

confidence: 56%

Global atmospheric model for mercury including oxidation by bromine atoms

et al. 2010

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Abstract. Global models of atmospheric mercury generally assume that gas-phase OH and ozone are the main oxidants converting Hg 0 to Hg II and thus driving mercury deposition to ecosystems. However, thermodynamic considerations argue against the importance of these reactions. We demonstrate here the viability of atomic bromine (Br) as an alternative Hg 0 oxidant. We conduct a global 3-D simulation with the GEOS-Chem model assuming gas-phase Br to be the sole Hg 0 oxidant (Hg + Br model) and compare to the previous version of the model with OH and ozone as the sole oxidants (Hg + OH/O 3 model). We specify global 3-D Br concentration fields based on our best understanding of tropospheric and stratospheric Br chemistry. In both the Hg + Br and Hg + OH/O 3 models, we add an aqueous photochemical reduction of Hg II in cloud to impose a tropospheric lifetime for mercury of 6.5 months against deposition, as needed to reconcile observed total gaseous mercury (TGM) concentrations with current estimates of anthropogenic emissions. This added reduction would not be necessary in the Hg + Br model if we adjusted the Br oxidation kinetics downward within their range of uncertainty. We find that the Hg + Br and Hg + OH/O 3 models are equally capable of reproducing the spatial distribution of TGM and its seasonal cycle at northern mid-latitudes. The Hg + Br model shows a steeper decline of TGM concentrations from the tropics to southern mid-latitudes. Only the Hg + Br model can reproduce the springtime depletion and summer rebound of TGM observed at polar sites; the snowpack component of GEOS-Chem suggests that 40% of Hg II deposited to snow in the Arctic is transferred to the ocean and land reservoirs, amounting to aCorrespondence to: C. D. Holmes (cdholmes@post.harvard.edu) net deposition flux to the Arctic of 60 Mg a −1 . Summertime events of depleted Hg 0 at Antarctic sites due to subsidence are much better simulated by the Hg + Br model. Model comparisons to observed wet deposition fluxes of mercury in the US and Europe show general consistency. However the Hg + Br model does not capture the summer maximum over the southeast US because of low subtropical Br concentrations while the Hg + OH/O 3 model does. Vertical profiles measured from aircraft show a decline of Hg 0 above the tropopause that can be captured by both the Hg + Br and Hg + OH/O 3 models, except in Arctic spring where the observed decline is much steeper than simulated by either model; we speculate that oxidation by Cl species might be responsible. The Hg + Br and Hg + OH/O 3 models yield similar global budgets for the cycling of mercury between the atmosphere and surface reservoirs, but the Hg + Br model results in a much larger fraction of mercury deposited to the Southern Hemisphere oceans.

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“…Also, climate variability and change itself can influence fire frequency (Westerling et al, 2006). Finally, let us note that recent publications have pointed out that fires can be a source of extremely toxic products such as mercury (Friedli et al, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Comparison of global inventories of CO emissions from biomass burning derived from remotely sensed data

et al. 2010

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Abstract. We compare five global inventories of monthly CO emissions named VGT, ATSR, MODIS, GFED3 and MOPITT based on remotely sensed active fires and/or burned area products for the year 2003. The objective is to highlight similarities and differences by focusing on the geographical and temporal distribution and on the emissions for three broad land cover classes (forest, savanna/grassland and agriculture). Globally, CO emissions for the year 2003 range between 365 Tg CO (GFED3) and 1422 Tg CO (VGT). Despite the large uncertainty in the total amounts, some common spatial patterns typical of biomass burning can be identified in the boreal forests of Siberia, in agricultural areas of Eastern Europe and Russia and in savanna ecosystems of South America, Africa and Australia. Regionally, the largest difference in terms of total amounts (CV > 100%) and seasonality is observed at the northernmost latitudes, especially in North America and Siberia where VGT appears to overestimate the area affected by fires. On the contrary, Africa shows the best agreement both in terms of total annual amounts (CV = 31%) and of seasonality despite some overestimation of emissions from forest and agriculture observed in the MODIS inventory. In Africa VGT provides the most reliable seasonality. Looking at the broad land cover types, the range of contribution to the global emissions of CO is 64-74%, 23-32% and 3-4% for forest, savanna/grassland and agriculture, respecCorrespondence to: D. Stroppiana (stroppiana.d@irea.cnr.it) tively. These results suggest that there is still large uncertainty in global estimates of emissions and it increases if the comparison is carried by out taking into account the temporal (month) and spatial (0.5 • × 0.5 • cell) dimensions. Besides the area affected by fires, also vegetation characteristics and conditions at the time of burning should also be accurately parameterized since they can greatly influence the global estimates of CO emissions.

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Initial Estimates of Mercury Emissions to the Atmosphere from Global Biomass Burning

Cited by 152 publications

References 33 publications

Monsoon-facilitated characteristics and transport of atmospheric mercury at a high-altitude background site in southwestern China

Monsoon-facilitated characteristics and transport of atmospheric mercury at a high-altitude background site in southwestern China

Global atmospheric model for mercury including oxidation by bromine atoms

Comparison of global inventories of CO emissions from biomass burning derived from remotely sensed data

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