Publication Date:
2015-10-20
Description:
Measurements of the vertical distribution of atmospheric mercury (Hg) are rare, because airborne measurements are expensive and labour intensive. Consequently, only a few vertical Hg profile measurements have been reported since the 1970s. Besides the CARIBIC passenger aircraft observations, the latest vertical profile over Europe was measured in 1996. Within the Global Mercury Observation System (GMOS) project four vertical profiles were taken on board research aircraft (CASA-212) in August 2013 in background air over different locations in Slovenia and Germany. Each vertical profile consists of at least seven 5 min horizontal flight sections from 500 m above ground to 3000 m a.s.l. Gaseous elemental mercury (GEM) was measured with a Tekran 2537X analyser and a Lumex RA-915-AM. Total gaseous mercury (TGM) was measured using a Tekran 2537B analyser and gaseous oxidized mercury (GOM) was sampled onto 8 denuders for post flight analysis (one for each profile, three during the transfer flights, and two blanks). In addition to the mercury measurements, SO2, CO, O3, NO, NO2, as well as basic meteorological parameters (pressure, temperature, relative humidity) have been measured. Additional ground based speciated mercury measurements at the GMOS master site in Waldhof (Germany) were used to extend the profile to the ground. No vertical gradient was found inside the well mixed boundary layer (variation by less than 0.1 ng m-3) at different sites with GEM varying from location to location between 1.4 and 1.6 ng m-3 (STP; standard conditions: p = 1013.25 hPa, T = 273.15 K). At all locations GEM dropped to 1.3 ng m-3 (STP) when entering the free troposphere and remained constant at higher altitudes. The combination of the vertical profile, measured on 21 August 2013, over Leipzig (Germany) with the CARIBIC measurements during ascent and descent to Frankfurt airport (Germany) at approximately the same time provide a unique central European vertical profile from inside the boundary layer (550 m a.s.l.) to the upper free troposphere (10 500 m a.s.l.) and shows a fairly constant free tropospheric TGM concentration of 1.3 ng m-3 (STP). The highest GOM concentrations of up to 60 pg m-3 (STP, denuder samples) were found above the boundary layer during the transfer flights.
Electronic ISSN:
1680-7375
Topics:
Geosciences
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