Monitoring of Atmospheric Mercury at a Global Atmospheric Watch (GAW) Site on An-Myun Island, Korea

Abstract

In order to investigate the regional background concentration levels of mercury (Hg), measurements were routinely recorded on An-Myun Island off the coast of Korea (December 2004 to April 2006. The mean concentration of Hg computed from the entire measurement period was 4.61±2.21 ng m −3 with a range of 0.10-25.4 ng m −3 (N=10,485). Using these data, we inspected various aspects of Hg behavior from the relatively remote island of An-Myun in Korea. Inspection of the seasonal patterns of Hg indicated that its concentration levels generally peaked in spring, while reached a minimum in summer. The summertime deficiency of Hg along with the lack of diurnal variation suggests that the environmental behavior of Hg at the study site was strongly suppressed by heavy precipitation during specific period. The diurnal variations of Hg, typically characterized by a relative daytime dominance, are distinguishable between seasons so that such patterns disappear during the summer. The results of our analysis, when inspected in terms of long-range transport of airborne pollutants, imply that Hg concentration levels can be affected intensively by trans-boundary input processes over certain period of time. Its springtime dominance hence suggests the combined effects of various local source processes and the meteorological conditions favorable for the massive air mass transport phenomenon (such as Asian Dust storms) during that time period.

Elemental mercury (Hg(0)) in air and surface waters of the Yellow Sea during late spring and late fall 2012: Concentration, spatial-temporal distribution and air/sea flux

“…This pattern is consistent with our summer cruise (Ci et al, 2011d) and two shipboard measurements from Weihai and Qingdao in the Shandong Peninsula (China) to Incheon (South Korea) crossing the north of the Yellow Sea (Nguyen et al, 2011). The combination of this study and other measurements in the open ocean (Friedli et al, 2004;Ci et al, 2011d;Nguyen et al, 2011) and coastal regions (Nguyen et al, 2007;Ci et al, 2011a) suggests that the GEM concentrations in the Yellow Sea had a common spatial pattern with increased concentrations in the coastal region (2.5-3.5 ng m À3 ) and decreased concentrations in the open ocean (1.3-1.7 ng m À3 ). This phenomenon has also been successfully reproduced by modeling study (e.g., Lin et al, 2010).…”

Field Measurement of Total Gaseous Mercury and Its Correlation with Meteorological Parameters and Criteria Air Pollutants at a Coastal Site of the Penghu Islands

“…The average TGM concentration at the Penghu Islands during the monitoring seasons was 3.17 ± 1.06 ng/m 3 within the (Nguyen et al, 2007); (b) Yellow Sea ; (c) Jeju Island (Nguyen et al, 2010); (d) Okinawa Island (Chand et al, 2008); (e) Penghu Islands (This study); (f) South China Sea (Fu et al, 2010).…”

“…The mercury levels in winter were generally higher than those in summer, suggesting that the height of mixing layer at these areas was lower in winter due to a relatively more stable atmosphere, which plays an important role in elevating the atmospheric mercury concentrations based on mass balance (Lindqvist et al, 1991;Burke et al, 1995;Kock et al, 2005). However, different findings observed at the Penghu Islands and selected locations in the East Asia were possibly attributed to the influences of biomass burning and mercury transport from adjacent areas in certain seasons (Nguyen et al, 2007;Nguyen et al, 2010;Chand et al, 2008;Fu et al, 2010;Tsai et al, 2012). In summary, in addition to the local sources and open burning, the concentration of TGM at the Penghu Islands was mainly influenced by the long-range transportation of air masses, as the prevailing wind direction and air mass transportation routes potentially playing the critical roles on the variation of TGM concentration in the atmosphere.…”

Air–sea exchange of gaseous mercury in the tropical coast (Luhuitou fringing reef) of the South China Sea, the Hainan Island, China

“…These concentrations were significantly higher than those in the Northern Hemisphere background region (1.50-1.75 ng m −3 , Ebinghaus et al 2002) Nguyen et al 2007Nguyen et al , 2010, the island of Okinawa (2.04 ng m −3 , Jaffe et al 2005), and the open water of the Bohai Sea, the Yellow Sea, and the East China Sea (~2-3 ng m −3 , Ci et al 2011aCi et al , d, 2015Wang et al 2016).…”