Fluxes of reactive gaseous mercury measured with a newly developed method using relaxed eddy accumulation

There is a qualitative understanding that gaseous elemental mercury (GEM) is oxidized during Arctic spring to reactive gaseous mercury (RGM) that afterwards is removed by fast deposition to snow surfaces. The conditional sampling or relaxed eddy accumulation (REA), technique represents the first opportunity to directly measure fluxes of reactive gaseous mercury (RGM) to the snow pack in the Arctic. Using a micrometeorological method REA system, with a heated sampling system specifically designed for Arctic use, the dry deposition of RGM is measured after polar sunrise, in Barrow, Alaska. Heated KCl-coated manual RGM annular denuders were used as the accumulators with an inlet allowing only fine particles to pass (Cut off diameter 2.5 μm). At 3 m above the snow pack significant RGM fluxes were measured each spring in 2001–2004. Both depositions and emissions were observed. The emissions were attributed to chemical formation of RGM at or near the snow surface. The surface resistance, Rc, for RGM was found to be very small and set to zero as a first estimate.