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

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Fate of Mercury in the Arctic 47<br />

applying power, since there is an automatic start routine. A floppy disc is inserted into the floppy<br />

disk drive for data output. Air is then sampled at least for 4 hours, i.e. four REA system consecutive<br />

runs, sampling switching at 1 Hz in all three channels, if a separate RGM ambient air concentration<br />

is being measured. If the system is used to obtain the ambient concentration of RGM from constant<br />

sampling, then just the up and down channels are switched, and the mid channel remains open. The<br />

mass flow is adjusted in the manifold to just over 20 litres per minute.<br />

After the 4 hour sampling period, the system is turned off. The floppy disk is removed and data<br />

is imported and analysed as described previously. The annular denuders are taken off of the tower<br />

and tightly capped. The denuders are then analysed for RGM concentration as previously described.<br />

Flux and depositional velocity may then be calculated as described below.<br />

The best way to measure flux with a meteorological system, is instantaneously measuring a<br />

trace gas in an air parcel going up or down and correlating it with air mass exchange data, called<br />

“eddy correlation”. With present analytical techniques, this is not possible for reactive gaseous<br />

mercury, so relaxed eddy accumulation was used. Desjardins (1972) proposed a means of<br />

overcoming the problem of not being able to instantaneously measure the trace gas exchange<br />

simultaneously with the mass exchange of the air by proposing accumulating the air and airflow<br />

data over time, and completing the analysis after a finite sampling period, called “eddy<br />

accumulation”. Businger and Oncley (1990) further simplified this method by replacing the fast<br />

response trace gas analyser with fast response valves accumulators. This allows trace gases to be<br />

collected over time, each into their own accumulator: gases on the way up, or gases on the way<br />

down; and analysed after an appropriately long sampling time to ensure enough trace gas was<br />

accumulated to know if the observed difference in the up and down reservoirs was significant or<br />

not, and thus determine the flux.

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