FATE OF MERCURY IN THE ARCTIC Michael Evan ... - COGCI

While we believe that we have made a major advance in understanding the chemistry governing
MDEs, these results associated with mercury load estimates have to be taken with caution for
several reasons.
• There is far from full understanding of the chemical processes controlling atmospheric mercury
and as a consequence the parameterization of AMDE in the model is not at present adequate for
a reliable quantitative calculation of the mercury burden.
• The source of Br is not well described and thus the temporal and geographical variability is not
well described
• Evidence is reported for re-emission of mercury to the atmosphere, which is not included in the
model
For these reasons the 208 tons/year represents only an estimate of the upper limit for the mercury
load to the Arctic area.
Acknowledgement
A. Richter is acknowledged for providing us with the BrO data from the GOME satellite.
The Danish Environmental Protection Agency financially supported this work with means from the
MIKA/DANCEA funds for Environmental Support to the Arctic Region. The findings and
conclusions presented here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Agency.
The Royal Danish Air Force is acknowledged for providing free transport to Station Nord and the
staff at Station Nord are specially acknowledged for an excellent support
Michael E. Goodsite was financially supported by NERI and the Danish Research Council.
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