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

Autor: Zang-Ho Shon, Hang Thi Nguyen, Ki-Hyun Kim, Yong-Hoon Youn, Min-Young Kim, Jeongsoon Lee, Sungmin Hong
Rok vydání: 2007
Předmět:
Zdroj: Water, Air, and Soil Pollution. 185:149-164
ISSN: 1573-2932
0049-6979
Popis: 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.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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